Pope Francis on Wednesday apologised on behalf of the Catholic Church "for recent scandals in the Vatican and in Rome".
"I'd like to ask you for forgiveness, in the name of the Church, for the scandals that have occurred both in Rome and in the Vatican in recent times," the pope told pilgrims at his general audience in St Peter's Square.
"Jesus is realistic and it is inevitable that scandals occur," the pope said.
"But woe betide the man who causes scandal," he added.
Over 100 parishioners from a church in Rome signed a letter appealing to Francis to investigate an unnamed friar over longstanding allegations that he paid for sex with homeless men in Rome's Villa Borghese park while high on poppers, daily Corriere della Sera reported last week.
The letter also urged Francis to reverse the transfer of another senior priest at the headquarters of the Discalced Carmelites in Rome, who revealed the allegations. The unnamed friar was also transferred in the wake of the affair.
One of the homeless men reported that he was brutally beaten at night in Villa Borghese in 2006 after confession to sexual relations with the friar but his attackers were never identified.
Another recent scandal to hit the Vatican was the highly publicised coming out of a gay Polish priest employed as one of its senior officials.
The Vatican fired Krzysztof Charamsa after he said he was a practising homosexual and had a partner in interviews given to Corriere della Sera and Polish media in early October.
Charamsa's revelations came on the eve of an ongoing Vatican summit on the family, attended by prelates and presided over by Francis, which has been overshadowed by reports of Machiavellian plots and betrayals.
The leaking this week of a private letter to the pontiff from conservative cardinals at the synod has reportedly revived the cloak and dagger atmosphere of the 2012 'Vatileaks' scandal when Pope Benedict XVI's butler disclosed venomous infighting at the top of the Catholic Church and serious graft allegations in the Vatican government.
The letter, delivered by Australian cardinal George Pell and signed by 13 rebel cardinals, accuses Francis of favouring liberals over conservatives in the battle over the Church's approach to gays and divorced believers.
The missive, sent to Francis on 5 October and published on the blog of Italian expert on Vatican affairs Sandro Magister, alleged procedures at the three-week global meeting on the family were "designed to facilitate predetermined results" on flashpoint issues.
