Pope Francis to Meet Victims of Sexual Abuse

Press TV
July 5, 2014

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/07/05/369952/pope-francis-to-meet-sex-abuse-victims/

[with video]

Pope Francis is to meet with victims of pedophile priests for the first time in a gesture to express his closeness to the tens of thousands of people abused by priests globally.

Six victims from Britain, Germany and Ireland will have face-to-face talks with the head of the Roman Catholic Church at his private residence in the Vatican on Monday, July 7.

The private meeting with abuse victims is the first since the Argentinian Pope was elected last year.

Francis has come under increasing fire for perceived inaction on the part of the Vatican in addressing the problem. Earlier in April, he issued an unprecedented apology for the child sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church.

The Vatican has been rocked by major inquiries into claims of abuse in Ireland, the United States, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and several other countries.

Back in May, the United Nations Committee against Torture accused the church of ducking responsibility in the case of sexual abuse by priests. The committee also blasted the Vatican’s practice of transferring abusing clergymen from parish to parish in a bid to cover up their crimes.

More than 3,400 abuse cases had been handled over the past decade by Catholic Church authorities, Vatican officials revealed this week, noting that 848 priests defrocked and a further 2572 ordered to “live a life of prayer or penance” during the period.