Pope to meet sex abuse victims

VATICAN CITY
IOL

July 5 2014
By Jean-Louis De La Vaissiere

REUTERS

Vatican City –

Pope Francis will meet victims of paedophile 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 criticised 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”.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.