Rome -- Pope John Paul II offered an apology yesterday for sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy, saying it had caused the victims "great suffering and spiritual harm" and had damaged the church.
The pontiff tucked his one-paragraph "mea culpa" into a 120-page message to Catholics in Oceania on a wide range of issues raised by their bishops in 1998.
Meeting at the Vatican, the bishops had condemned sexual abuse within the church and in society as a whole.
John Paul's message, said by the Vatican to be the first personally sent by a pope over the Internet, also followed a series of articles by the National Catholic Reporter quoting internal Vatican reports about sexual abuse of nuns and other women by priests and bishops.
According to reports cited by the U.S. weekly last spring, some priests and missionaries forced nuns to have sex with them and, in several instances, committed rape and obliged the victims to have abortions. The reports covered cases in 23 countries, including the United States, the Philippines, Ireland and Papua New Guinea.
The Vatican, in response to the articles, acknowledged that the problem existed and said an investigation was under way.
Yesterday's papal message to Catholics in Australia, New Zealand and far- flung South Pacific islands went much further.
"In certain parts of Oceania," John Paul said, "sexual abuse by some clergy and religious has caused great suffering and spiritual harm to the victims. It has been very damaging in the life of the church."
"Sexual abuse within the church is a profound contradiction of the teaching and witness of Jesus Christ," the pope said, adding that the church wished to "apologize unreservedly to the victims for the pain and disillusionment caused to them."
BAY AREA CASES
Sexual abuse within the Catholic church has been an issue locally as well.
A defrocked San Francisco priest, Monsignor Patrick J. O'Shea, was indicted last year on 224 counts of child molestation on allegations that he molested nine boys from 1964 to 1980.
Last year, the Catholic Church agreed to pay $535,000 to the Rev. Jorge Hume Salas, who accused former Santa Rosa Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann of years of sexual coercion.
Former Santa Rosa priest Donald Kimball was charged last year with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl while Kimball was a youth minister in 1977.
The church, the pope said, is seeking "open and just procedures to respond to complaints in this area" and is committed to "compassionate and effective care for the victims, their families, the whole community and the offenders themselves."
John Paul's promise of "open and just procedures" also answered a demand raised at the Vatican last month by Sister Mary Sujita Kallupurakkathu, superior general of the Sisters of Notre Dame in India.
During a worldwide synod of bishops, she called for a forum to deal with what she called the "increasing exploitation and abuses" of nuns in India.
SOUTH PACIFIC TRIP OUT
The bishops of Oceania had expected John Paul to travel to the island of New Caledonia this fall. But the 81-year-old pontiff's declining health weighed against a long journey to the South Pacific, and he decided instead to address his audience over the Internet.
John Paul's message of yesterday also apologized for the forced evangelization of aboriginals, whom the pope said were subjected to "shameful injustices" by Catholic clergy, including the separation of children from their families.