Friday, April 18, 2008
HE'S TRYING TO MAKE AMENDS
I hope victims are deriving some consolation from his willingness to listen and not to pretend it didn't happen as his predecessor did.
WASHINGTON -- Pope Benedict XVI spoke Thursday with victims who as trusting children were sexually abused by their priests, an unexpected gathering that was the Roman Catholic Church's most dramatic step yet to acknowledge the harm caused by the clergy.
The unscripted meeting at the Vatican Embassy was facilitated by Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley and involved victims from the Boston area, viewed as the seat of the widespread scandal, which involved 12,000 children and teenagers being violated by 5,000 priests in Catholic parishes nationwide.
"They prayed with the holy father, who afterward listened to their personal accounts and offered them words of encouragement and hope," said a statement from the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman.
"His holiness assured them of his prayers for their intentions, for their families and for all victims of sexual abuse," Lombardi said.
