By Philip Pullella
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict arrived in Australia onSunday for an international Catholic youth festival andpromised to apologise for a sexual abuse scandal that hasrocked the church in the country.
The 81-year-old pontiff arrived in Sydney after more than20 hours of flying from Rome to start the 10-day trip, thelongest of his pontificate so far and the first to the Pacific.
In a message to young Australians at the start of his trip,the pope urged them to look to God for the answers to theirdeep questions about the meaning of their lives.
"Many young people today lack hope. They are perplexed bythe questions that present themselves ever more urgently in aconfusing world, and they are often uncertain which way to turnfor answers," he said.
"They see poverty and injustice and they long to findsolutions. They are challenged by the arguments of those whodeny the existence of God and they wonder how to respond. Theysee great damage done to the natural environment through humangreed and they struggle to find ways to live in greater harmonywith nature and with one another," he said.
After a refueling stop in Darwin, he arrived in Sydney,site of the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Youthfestivities. He will rest for three days in a secludedresidence outside the city before the official start of hisvisit on Thursday.
During an in-flight news conference with reporters shortlyafter the plane left Rome, the pope said everything possiblewould be done to prevent a recurrence of Australia's sexualabuse crisis and to promote healing among the victims.
He also said he hoped the Anglican Church would not suffera schism because of a decision to ordain women bishops and thathe wanted his presence among hundreds of thousands of youngpeople to be an impulse for the protection of the environment.
"It is essential for the Church to reconcile, to prevent,to help and also to see (its) guilt," he said. "It must beclear . being a priest is incompatible with this behaviourbecause priests are in the service of our Lord," he said.
The issue of sexual abuse of minors by priests has been amajor scandal in several countries around the world after localChurches were found to have moved abusers from parish to parishinstead of defrocking them or reporting them to authorities.
When he visited the United States last April the pope spokerepeatedly about the "shame" the scandal had wrought on theChurch and he met with abuse victims.
Broken Rites, a group which represents abuse victims inAustralia, has a list of 107 convictions for sexual abuse butsays the real number is higher and only a handful go to court.
Victims say the Catholic Church in Australia continues tocover up abuse by clergy despite issuing an apology for pastabuse and compensation. Some plan to protest during the visit.
DANGER OF ANGLICAN SCHISM
Another main issue during the in-flight news conference wasthe crisis gripping the Anglican Church, which risks schismover a decision by a Church synod to ordain women bishops.
The decision, which follows the admission of women to thepriesthood, has prompted a number of Anglicans opposed to themove to express a desire to convert to Catholicism.
"My essential contribution can only be prayer," he said inresponse to a question about the current crisis in the70-million-member Anglican communion, whose mother Church, theChurch of England, split with Rome in 1534.
Next week Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams ishosting the Lambeth Conference, the 10-yearly meeting ofAnglican bishops from around the world.
But the conference faces mass defections by conservatives,mainly from Africa, Asia and South America, who were vehementlyopposed to the ordination of openly gay U.S Bishop GeneRobinson and the blessing of same-sex marriages in Canada.
"The desire is that schisms and new fractures can beavoided," he said, adding that Catholic Church would not"intervene immediately" in their decisions.
(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by David Fox)
