A letter from Pope Francis (letter to U.S. bishops), was read to the 280 bishops who attended a retreat January 2-8 at Mundelein. The eight-page letter said, in part:
“God’s faithful people and the Church’s mission continue to suffer greatly as a result of abuses of power and conscience and sexual abuse, and the poor way that they were handled, as well as the pain of seeing an episcopate lacking in unity and concentrated more on pointing fingers than on seeking paths of reconciliation.”
The pope had requested this retreat as part of the bishops’ response to renewed attention on clergy sexual abuse.
The text of the talks delivered by Capuchin Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household, to the U.S. bishops during their retreat at Mundelein Seminary are available at this link.
NCR online (Jan. 11) has an article by Tom Roberts on the retreat talks which you can access HERE.