✣Pope deplores abuse in letter to world’s Catholics

What happened? Pope Francis has called on all Catholics to eng­age in penitential prayer and fasting following the publishing of a grand jury report into sexual abuse in Penn­sylvania. In a letter to “the People of God”, the Pope said that the Church needed to beg forgiveness for its failure to act, calling for Christians to join together in pen­ance to “awaken our conscience and arouse our solidarity and commitment to a culture of care that says ‘never again’ to every form of abuse.”