(CNN) Pope Francis says young Catholics are "scandalized" by the Catholic Church's "monstrous" clergy sexual abuse crisis but adds that church officials who tried to handle abusive priests many years ago should not be judged by today's standards.

The Pope's comments came Tuesday aboard the papal flight home from the Baltics, when he answered reporters' questions for about 50 minutes.

On Tuesday, Francis met with young people in Tallinn, Estonia, where he also acknowledged the church's abuse scandal and said Catholic leaders need to be "converted" to address young people's concerns.

"Young people are scandalized by the hypocrisy of older people," Francis told journalists on Tuesday. "They are scandalized by war. They are scandalized by incongruity, they are scandalized by corruption, and as part of this corruption ... sexual abuse."

"There are accusations against the church," Francis continued. "We all know that. We know the statistics. I will not repeat them, but even if it was only one single priest to abuse a young girl or young boy this is monstrous because that man was chosen by God to bring that child to heaven."

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