Pope to apologise for church sex abuse
Malcolm Moore In Rome
POPE Benedict XVI travels to Australia today, where he is likely to apologise further for the sexual abuse committed by priests.
The trip is the most ambitious in terms of distance and duration that the 81-year-old pontiff has attempted so far.
Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Australian prelate, suggested that the Pope would repeat the contrition over clerical sexual abuse that he voiced in America earlier this year.
Victims
On his trip to New York and Washington in April, the pontiff spoke repeatedly about the problem and met a group of victims.
"He handled [the issue] very well in the United States and I anticipate he will do the same here,'' said Mgr Pell.
The Pope will preside over the 23rd World Youth Day, which is expected to draw more visitors than the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Organisers are expecting 500,000 worshippers in Sydney, with 125,000 coming from overseas.
The Pope will sail into Sydney harbour on Thursday, flanked by a boat full of Aborigines in order to avoid the "symbolism'' of imitating Captain Cook's arrival on Australian soil.
Aborigines make up around 500,000 of the country's Catholic population. (©Daily Telegraph, London)
- Malcolm Moore
