Pope: The Devil Made Us Do It to the Little Ones

For the years of criminal abuse by his priests, Pope Benedict XIV has offered an apology and begged for forgiveness, costing him nothing.

The Times reports, "The pope did not outline specific actions that the church would take to combat abuse, as many had hoped — and as Benedict had pledged at an audience in April." In short, the Vatican has not put one penny into the monitoring of abuse by its employees.

Sad, truly tragic, is the pure and utter denial that pervades the Holy See. In the same breath as his faux apology the pontiff explains that in the view of the world from Rome, priests are not to blame. The Devil made them do it to the "little ones."

The pope said the Devil was behind the scandal, saying it had emerged now, in the middle of the Vatican’s Year of the Priest, because “the enemy,” or the Devil, wants to see “God driven out of the world.”

“And so it happened that in this very year of joy for the sacrament of the priesthood, the sins of priests came to light — particularly the abuse of the little ones,” the pope added.

Scorecard: One worthless apology. Pope still on square one.