VATICAN CITY
Naharnet (Lebanon)
Pope Francis will meet victims of pedophile priests for the first time on Monday, as a Vatican commission moves to address the problem of clerical sex abuse in developing countries.
Six victims from Britain, Germany and Ireland will talk with the head of the Roman Catholic Church at his private residence near Saint Peter’s Basilica in a gesture aimed at expressing his closeness to the tens of thousands of people abused by priests globally.
The private meeting — the first with abuse victims since Francis was elected in February last year — is hotly awaited by victim support groups who have criticized the Argentinian for not acting earlier.
Francis has been slow to speak out on an issue which has hugely damaged the Catholic Church for over a decade, but in May he branded the sexual abuse of children by priests a crime comparable to a “satanic Mass” and promised “zero tolerance”.
Monday’s encounter, which will follow a mass in the pope’s private chapel, will come a day after a meeting of the commission set up by Francis to advise him on the sexual abuse crisis and draw up protocols for the pope to consider.
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