Pope Francis Says Sexual Abuse in Catholic Church is Like a 'Satanic Mass'; Vows Zero Tolerance

Pope Francis is coming on strong against sexual abuse in the Catholic church as he is set to meet with victims next month and said there will be zero tolerance toward clergymen committing these crimes.

"Sexual abuse is such an ugly crime ... because a priest who does this betrays the body of the Lord. It is like a satanic Mass," Pope Francis said of the matter according to CharismaNews. "We must go ahead with zero tolerance."

Eight of the victims are reportedly meeting with the pontiff along with Cardinal Patrick O'Malley from Boston. The cardinal was selected to head up the investigation.

Pope Francis was fielding questions while on a plane back from the Middle East. He talked for the entire duration of the special flight press conference and even overruled his spokesperson who told him to rest.

On the flight Pope Francis also spoke about the Vatican's finances, the environment, celibacy in the priesthood, and perhaps retiring one day. On the role of celibacy, he said it was not an "unchangeable dogma" for the Catholic church, but he suggested it would be best.

While the Pope was in the Middle East he invited Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to a prayer meeting.

Two weeks ago the Pope was labeled a Socialist by Stephen Colbert on the "Colbert Report." He pointed out that he was disturbed to learn that Pope Francis called capitalism "a new tyranny" predicated on "the idolatry of money."

He then played a clip from The O'Reilly Factor in which O'Reilly stated the Pope was not endorsing socialism when he recommended taking money from the "haves" and giving it to the "haves not." Colbert then played another clip in which a panel on Fox Business News reacted to the news the Pope has called on governments to "redistribute wealth to the poor."

"The Pope is a socialist. In retrospect, I should have known: he lives in Europe, and he gives his employees a one-day work-week," he joked. "So, either the Pope is wrong or God is a commie."