Pope blames church's sins for abuse scandal

His strong comments placed the blame for the crisis squarely on the sins of paedophile priests, repudiating the Vatican's initial response to the scandal in which it blamed the media as well as pro-choice and pro-gay marriage advocates for mounting a campaign against the church and the pope.

Speaking on his way to visit Portugal, the Pope said the Catholic Church had always suffered from problems of its own making but that "today we see it in a truly terrifying way".

"The greatest persecution of the church doesn't come from enemies on the outside but is born from the sins within the church," he said. "The church needs to profoundly relearn penitence, accept purification, learn forgiveness but also justice."

The Pope was responding to journalists' questions as he flew to Portugal. His four-day visit will take him from Lisbon to the famed Fatima shrine to Portugal's second city, Porto.

There have been no reported cases of sex abuse in Portugal, unlike in Malta, where he met abuse victims there last month.

Despite the Vatican's initial, defensive response to hundreds of clerical abuse reports in Europe, the Pope has promised that the church will take action.