Pope seeks prayers to save church from ‘attacks by the devil’

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VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis asked for daily prayers to protect the Catholic Church from what he says are “attacks by the devil,” in his latest response to the clerical sex abuse and cover-up scandal roiling his papacy.

A Vatican statement on Saturday appeared to be an indirect response to accusations that Francis himself, and a string of Vatican officials before him, were complicit in covering up the sexual misconduct of a now-disgraced American ex-cardinal.