A significant part of Pope Benedict XVI’s emphasis on the renewal of the Church focuses on priests. In 2005, as Cardinal Ratzinger, he wrote a famous passage for the Good Friday Way of the Cross that reflected on the “filth” in the Church, “even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to him!”

In his Letter to the Catholics of Ireland, he addressed one section to priests and Religious, expressing sympathy for the pain they are feeling and their sense of betrayal. But he went on to exhort them to “become ever more clearly men and women of prayer, courageously following the path of conversion, purification and reconciliation.”