UK sex abuse victim assaulted by paedophile priests ..., by Hannah Roberts, Daily Mail (July 8, 2014)

The first British victim of clerical sex abuse to meet Pope Francis has described the experience as ‘life-changing.’

Peter Saunders, 57, who was abused for more than five years by two priests, a teacher and a member of his family from the age of 8, said the visit to the Vatican was ‘very very emotional.’

Francis met six abuse victims including two Britons and two Irish people on Monday in a series of ‘intense’ discussions that lasted more than three hours during which he begged for forgiveness for the ‘sacrilegious’ crimes committed by the ‘sons and daughters of the church, who betrayed their mission.’

The Pope has previously been accused of not doing enough to tackle the abuse crisis.

But he used the encounter to condemn clerical abuse of children in his strongest language yet saying it was ‘sacrilegious’ and caused him personally great pain.

He said the church must ‘weep’ and make reparations for the betrayal of trust.

Mr Saunders told the Boston Globe that by listening to him Francis had done more for him than anyone else.

‘He’s granted me something that the prime minister, and the deputy prime minister and all these other ministers of state in the UK never have. I had the benefit of a discussion with him, with no limits, …It was a life changing moment for me.’

Mr Saunders said he had been left with psychological scars and retained a life-long fear of clergy after years of abuse.

He told the US newspaper: ‘ I’m wary of aspects of certain groups of people.

'When I see people in clerical dress, I step back and protect myself. I was very badly taken advantage of as a child and that’s engraved in my head.’

'The church has been more interested in self-protection than in being transparent,' he said.

When he was asked to meet Francis he couldn’t believe it, he said, because like many abuse victims, he grew up thinking he didn’t deserve anything good.

He said: ‘I always feel that if something good happens to me, it comes with a price. One of my abusers told me as a child that I was never going to amount to anything...During the last few weeks I’ve been pinching myself, thinking, is this real? And it was, I met him.’

Despite his childhood Mr Saunders said he remains a devout Catholic and believes Francis to be sincere man. ‘The man I met today, I don’t think is a man who would let us down. He’s a different kind of pope. ‘

He used the meeting to urge Francis to instruct his priests and bishops to work with civil authorities and told him he believed a sermon read in every church in the world condemning child abuse could bring people back to the fold.