VIRGINIA
WJLA
By The Associated Press, Suzanne Kennedy
VATICAN CITY (WJLA/AP) – Pope Francis begged forgiveness Monday from the victims of clergy sex abuse as he held his first meeting with several abuse survivors. He also promised to hold bishops accountable for the protection of minors.
The pope celebrated a Mass with six survivors at his Vatican hotel Monday, but in his homily he didn’t spell out whether that accountability would include firing bishops and other prelates who systematically shuffled pedophile priests from parish to parish to avoid bringing shame upon the Catholic church.
Victims’ advocacy groups around the world have pressed the Vatican for decades to severely discipline any complicit church hierarchy.
Even while the pope spent his morning with the three men and three women, listening to their stories one by one, several victims’ groups blasted the meetings as being “a PR event.” …
Becki Ianni of Burke, Va., a former abuse victim of a priest herself, told ABC7 she is not impressed.
“To me, it’s a PR move,” she said.
Ianni says she was abused by her family’s priest when she was in elementary school – but the priest committed suicide before he could be prosecuted.
Ianni said she received a letter of apology from the Catholic Church, acknowledging what she had gone through.
Ianni said she views today’s meeting of the Pope and six victims a nice gesture, but that the church needs to take action.
“I hope that the victims he met with…I hope they find healing,” she said. “It is brave of them to meet with him, but the meeting today isn’t going to protect a child, and that’s what we need to do.”
Parishioners attending daily mass at Cathedral of Saint Thomas Moore in Arlington Monday said they are encouraged by the Pope’s meeting.
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