This statement came during his general audience in St Peter's Square on Wednesday.

The Pope said: "Before beginning the catechesis, I would like to ask forgiveness in the name of the Church for the scandals that have happened in this last period both in Rome and at the Vatican. I ask forgiveness."

The Pope's apology came at the beginning of a catechetical reflection that was focused on caring for children.

There has been speculation as to which specific scandals the Pope was apologising for.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, Vatican told reporters later, "if the Pope uses a broad and general formula, that is what he intended".

Fr Lombardi said Francis wanted to reach out to ordinary people who are "disturbed or pained" when they read about scandals caused by "the Church or men of the Church".

Vatican commentator John Thavis wrote in his blog that there were several scandals for the Pope to choose from.

• "The gay official of the Vatican's doctrinal congregation who recently came out with his partner, saying the climate at his workplace was homophobic?"
• "Accusations of sexual impropriety made by a group of Catholics against priests and an official of the Carmelite religious order in Rome? "
• "The resignation of Rome's leftist mayor, Ignazio Marino, following press reports that the Pope was unhappy with the mayor's action on a number of issues?"
• "The accusations of sexual abuse against a Vatican diplomat, who was found dead in his Vatican residence in late August before he could stand trial?"
• "Or this week's leak of a ‘Letter of 13' cardinals to the Pope, contesting the direction and methods of the current synod of bishops on the family, which was followed by a series of confusing denials and clarifications?"

Thavis also said that the Pope's subsequent references to the care of children could suggest that it was a reference to clerical sexual abuse.

But he added that there is also growing concern at the return of the "Vatileaks" syndrome that helped convince Pope Benedict XVI to resign in 2013.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Tablet
• Catholic Herald
• John Thavis
• Reuters
• Image: Manila Bulletin

In Australia, the seminary intake has risen from about 235 a year in 2007 to 350 in 2012.

The rector of Holy Spirit Seminary in Queensland, Monsignor Tony Randazzo, says his seminary is busier than it has been for two decades.

"It's indicative that young people are coming forward enthusiastically to give themselves for a life in service in the Church," he said. "Young people have embraced the Gospel in a new kind of way."

According to an ABC report, one suggestion is that World Youth Day in Sydney five years ago may have sparked more interest in the priesthood.

In the United States, the number of priests dropped from 58,632 in 1965 to a record low of 38,964 last year, but the number of seminarians has been increasing modestly over the past few years, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

American seminaries are at their fullest since the 1970s, said Father Roger Landry, chaplain of Catholic Voices.

"When the going gets tough, good Catholic young men begin to recognise how important it is to have good and holy priests," Father Landry said. "Dioceses have done a good job in putting their best priests in vocations offices as the first point of contact."

Father Shawn McKnight, executive director of the Secretariat for Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said seminarians are acutely aware of the challenges and judgments they are likely to face in contemporary society.

"Seminaries have gotten better at filtering the types of candidates that are strongly committed to assisting the Church," he said. "The crucible of the scandal has molded our prospective seminarians. They are not expecting an easy life. They are not expecting to be applauded."

Sources:

ABC

Sun-Sentinel

Image: LRTV

A speech by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco to fellow bishops stopped just short of asking for the resignation of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is battling scandals over parties with prostitutes and corruption.

While Bagnasco, the head of the Italian Bishops Conference, did not specifically name the prime minister, he left little doubt he was referring to scandals that have touched Berlusconi and his centre-right government.

"It is mortifying to witness behaviour that not only goes counter to public decorum but is intrinsically sad and hollow," he said.

He said Italians had been left in a state of "dumbfounded astonishment" because of a ruling political class that was enmeshed in scandal and preoccupied with self-preservation while the rest of the country suffered from a deep economic crisis.

Until now the Vatican and the Italian Catholic Church have been hesitant to be scathing in its criticism of the centre-right, fearing that a leftist government could back measures it opposes, such as gay marriage and embryonic stem-stell research.

"The image is one of a country that is estranged, without impulse, as if everyone is waiting for the inevitable," Bagnasco said.

The political class, Bagnasco said, had a greater responsibility to live a moral life and set a good example because their behaviour had "undeniable effects on culture and education" and influenced the young and impressionable.

Bagnasco said many in the political class were propagating a poisonous culture of seeing success as something that could be reached through connections and short cuts rather than hard work. He called for a radical re-think of the way things work.

"It's not just a question of doing things differently but of thinking differently. There is a need to purify the air so that new generations, as they grow, are not poisoned," he said.

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