PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island’s Roman Catholic bishop is holding a day of prayer and penance because of the clerical sex abuse scandal.
Diocese of Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin says these are “difficult and dark days” for the church. The event takes place Friday.
He says a commitment to “end the scourge of sexual abuse” begins with prayer but doesn’t end there.
Tobin has said he was aware of incidents of sexual abuse reported to church officials while working in Pennsylvania, but it wasn’t his job to deal with them.
He was auxiliary bishop of Pittsburgh from 1992 until 1996.
Tobin says he’s fasting, in penance for his “faults and failures as a Christian, priest and bishop” and for “the sins and failures” of priests and bishops related to the sexual abuse of minors.
