German bishop apologizes for Catholic abuses

A top German bishop has apologized for thousands of sexual abuse cases that took place inside the Catholic Church there. “I’m ashamed for so many looking away, not wanting to recognize what happened and not helping the victims,” Cardinal Reinhard Marx, head of the German Bishops Conference, told reporters. “That goes for me as well.” A devastating report released Tuesday concluded that clergy members abused nearly 4,000 people between 1946 and 2014. The report found that more than half of the victims were age 13 or younger and most were boys. Every sixth case involved rape, and more than 1,600 clergy were involved. Pope Francis acknowledged Tuesday that the sex abuse scandal is driving people away from the Catholic Church and said the church must change its ways if it wants to keep future generations.