Offers apologetic words to victims of sexual abuse
Benedict XVI used his first papal state visit to Britain to attack “atheist extremism” and “aggressive secularism.” In a speech before the Queen and other dignitaries at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, he noted that great damages in the last century have been caused by “the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life.” He concluded with the argument that the Nazi desire to eradicate God had led to the Holocaust. He also asked that 21st-century Britain respect its Christian foundations. The other focus of his visit was to offer conciliatory words to the victims of Catholic sexual abuse. Using his strongest language to date on his church’s record on clerical sex abuse, he deplored the church’s failure to act swiftly and decisively in the past.