HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong's Catholics said they felt let down and embarrassed by reports that priests in the territory had sexually abused children but their loyalty had not been shaken.
"It's very upsetting to Catholics, some are disappointed... (perhaps) we need to see them as human, as frail as we are," said Moira Shaw, acting editor of the Sunday Examiner, Hong Kong's English-language Catholic newspaper.
The Catholic diocese in Hong Kong said on Thursday three local priests had been accused of sexually abusing minors in the past 27 years, triggering a storm of concern and publicity.
On Saturday, the Church received two more complaints that priests had sexually abused children.
The allegations echo a child sex abuse scandal that has rocked the U.S. Roman Catholic Church.
Hong Kong's Catholic church had done everything to help the families of the victims, but they should have informed the police, Shaw said.
"It's a challenge for the church," said a European father cradling a toddler after Sunday's service.
"I think it does not affect my faith in the church," said a mother-of-two who identified herself as Mrs. Young. "I think it is just one bad apple and it's too bad it's affecting the organisation," she said.
A Hong Kong father said he would not object to his young son being alone with a priest. It was just one instance, he said.
"I'm not losing sleep over this," a Catholic priest said. In his service he had sought to reassure worshippers of the Hong Kong church's no-tolerance policy for paedophiles.
Shaw expressed concern that the incidents might be used to loosen the Catholic Church's considerable influence on education in Hong Kong.
The Church runs around 300 educational institutions that are perceived as offering above average schooling, even by non-Catholics who scramble for admission, Shaw said.
Beijing and the Vatican remain at a stalemate over the Pope's canonisation in 2000 of 19th century Catholic martyrs whom Beijing called traitors, and the Holy See's recognition of Taiwan, which Taiwan regards as a rebel province.
Hong Kong, which reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, maintains its Catholic practises and the Catholic church boasts about 250,000 devotees and 300 priests.