Pope meets survivors of priestly abuse

MEETING WITH ABUSE VICTIMS
BY JOHN THAVIS, CNS
POPE BENEDICT XVI held an unscheduled meeting with victims of priestly sexual abuse last week, shortly after pledging the Church's continued efforts to help heal the wounds caused by such acts.
The Vatican said the Pope met privately in a chapel at the apostolic nunciature with "a small group of persons who were sexually abused by members of the clergy". The group was accompanied by Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, which was the epicentre of the abuse scandal. "They prayed with the Holy Father, who afterward listened to their personal aLT.ciiints and offered them words of encoulagement and hope." a Vatican statement said
-His Holiness assured them ot his prayers for their intentions, for their families and for all victims of sexual abuse," it said.
Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, Vatican press spokesman, told journalists. the meeting involved five or six victims, men and women from the Archdiocese of Boston, and lasted about 25 minutes. During the encounter, each of the victims had a chance to speak personally to the Pope, who spoke some "very affectionate words", he said.
Fr Lombardi said it was a very emotional meeting; some were in tears.
At the end of the meeting,
Cardinal O'Malley gave the Pope a 'book listing the first names of' dit‘' approximately 1%000 victims of sexual abuse in the archdiocese within the last several decades, Fr Lombardi said, so the Pope could remember them in his prayers.
The Pope has spoken three times about clerical sexual abuse since he left Rome on April 15 for his six-day visit to the United States, expressing the sense of shame he and other Church leaders feel about what he called a "tragic situation".
On each occasion he made a point to encourage Church leaders and all Catholics to help those harmed by the abuse.
Some groups criticised the Pope for not visiting Boston on this trip and for not scheduling an encounter with victims. Vatican officials had not ruled out such a meeting. but indicated that if it occurred it would be very private.
Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors' Network of those AbUsed by Priests, praised the victims for having "the courage to come forward and speak up" but said she did not think the meeting "will change anything".
"Kids need actions," such as punishment for those "supervisors and bishops who have enabled and covered up for predators", she told Catholic News Service.
Mother positive step that Pope Benedict could take "with one stroke of the pen". Blaine said, would be to mandate that any priest who flees a country where he had been accused of sexual abuse be immediately returned to that country to face the consequences of his actions.
She also said it was "extremely disappointing" that the victims were accompanied by Cardinal O'Malley, recently named by SNAP as one of the "worst US cardinals" in terms of his response to clergy sex abuse.
"That was probably not the best decision," Ms Blaine said. "He hasn't even put into place the basics to help children protect themselves from predators."
According to SNAP, one in five children in the Archdiocese of Boston has not received the safe environment training mandated by the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, approved by the US bishops at their Dallas meeting in June 2002.