Tucson Citizen
September 23, 2011
http://tucsoncitizen.com/usa-today-news/2011/09/23/pope-meets-with-clergy-sex-abuse-victims-in-germany/
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The Vatican says Pope Benedict XVI met today with five victims who were sexually abused by priests in Germany, expressing “deep compassion and regret,” the Associated Press reports.
The half-hour visit came on the second day of his four-day state visit to his homeland.
A statement from the Vatican said the pope was “moved and deeply shaken” and is close to the victims. He expresses the hope that God “may heal the wounds of the victims and grant them inner peace.”
In the Netherlands, meanwhile, victims of sexual abuse by the clergy asked the International Criminal Court to investigate the pope and three Vatican officials for crimes against humanity for allowing children to be raped and abused by Roman Catholic clergy, Reuters says.
The complaint was filed by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and the New York-based rights group Center for Constitutional Rights. But Reuters writes that it’s unlikely the ICC could take on such a case, because many crimes occurred before 2002, when the ICC was set up, and because the Vatican has not signed up to the court’s jurisdiction.
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