'The Church's mission continues to suffer greatly as a result of sexual abuse," Pope Francis said.Vatican City: Pope Francis accused U.S.

bishops on Thursday of failing to show unity in face of a sexual abuse crisis, saying internal bickering had to end over a scandal that has shredded Church's credibility.In a long and highly unusual letter sent to U.S.

bishops as they embarked on a week-long retreat, Francis said handling of scandal showed urgent need for a new approach to management and mindset within Roman Catholic Church."God's faithful people and Church's mission continue to suffer greatly as a result of abuses of power and conscience and sexual abuse, and poor way that they were handled," pope wrote, adding that bishops had "concentrated more on pointing fingers than on seeking paths of reconciliation".Pope Francis has summoned heads of some 110 national Catholic bishops' conferences and dozens of experts and leaders of religious orders to Vatican on Feb.

21-24 for an extraordinary gathering dedicated to now global crisis.Victims of clergy sexual abuse are hoping that meeting will finally come up with a clear policy to make bishops themselves accountable for mishandling of abuse cases.Ahead of that encounter, U.S.

bishops gathered on Wednesday near Chicago for seven days of prayer and spiritual reflection."The Church's credibility has been seriously undercut and diminished by these sins and crimes, but even more by efforts made to deny or conceal them," Francis said.The pope said he was so concerned by situation that he had hoped to attend retreat in person, but added that he had been unable to do so "for logistical reasons".

However, he sent his own preacher, Raniero Cantalamessa, to lead proceedings.Past wrongsThe U.S.

Church is still reeling from a grand jury report last year that found that 301 priests in state of Pennsylvania had sexually abused minors over a 70-year period.

Other U.S.

states have launched investigations of their own."The hurt caused by these sins and crimes has also deeply affected communion of bishops, and generated not sort of healthy and necessary disagreements and tensions found in any living body, but rather division and dispersion," pope said.Critics accuse Francis, who became pontiff in 2013, of responding much too slowly to sex scandals, of failing to empathise with victims and of blindly believing word of his fellow clergy.But in 2018 he tried to address past wrongs, publicly admitting he was wrong about a case in Chile and vowing that Church would never again seek to cover up such wrongdoing.In July, he accepted resignation of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, one of U.S.

Church's most prominent figures, following allegations he had sexually abused a 16-year-old boy, while in October, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington D.C., stepped down over his handling of abuse cases."Combatting culture of abuse, loss of credibility, resulting bewilderment and confusion, and discrediting of our mission urgently demands of us a renewed and decisive approach to resolving conflicts," pope wrote on Thursday."This requires not only a new approach to management, but also a change in our mindset."(Except for headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)