Pope Benedict the XVI was ashamed of cases of sexual abuse. Speaking in Italian, the pontiff addressed the issue of sex abuse, the public dimension 
of faith and human rights during the habitual press conference on board the aircraft that was bringing him to Washington according to Radio Renascença
Benedict XVI affirmed that by rejecting verified cases of sexual abuse inside the Church guarantees that it is possible to eliminate this phenomenon so that it may not repeat in the future.
“It is difficult to perceive how priests could treat their mission in this way” He affirmed. Indicating that this was a great suffering for the Church in general and for him in particular.
In order to combat the problem of pedophilia and of sexual abuse there exists three fronts of action. He explained. In the first place, in the Juridical plane, it is important to apply justice, excluding pedophiles from the exercise of priesthood.
In the second place pastoral action must be applied which should concentrate on the support of the victims with the objective of helping with reconciliation; and in the third place it is necessary to work at the seminary level in order to reinforce the criterion of selection and formation. For Benedict XVI it is more important to have good priests than to have many priests.
Aboard the plane, the Pope approached the question of the public dimension of faith —an intense subject for the Pontiff. He praised the American model of space for all confessions and forms of religion and indicated that it should be considered for a secularized Europe.
Benedict spoke finally of human rights in light of his visit to the United Nations. These are non-negotiables and are to be before all institutions. It is important that cultures encounter consensus on the values of human rights. He said, affiming that it is for renewing this conscience that he will go to the United Nations
Edition/RR
Internacional | Agência Ecclesia| 15/04/2008 | 15:23 | 1686 Caracteres | 289 | Bento XVI
Translation from Portuguese: Fr. Robert J. Carr