VATICAN CITY
America
Gerard O’Connell
April 27, 2018
Pope Francis has begun his face-to-face, “personal encounters” with the three Chilean abuse victims that accepted his invitation to come and talk with him, the Vatican announced this Friday evening, April 27.
The three victims—Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andrés Murillo—are staying in Santa Marta, the Vatican guest house where the pope lives. He will first meet each of them individually, one or more times, and when they have said all they want to say, Francis will meet them as a group.
In a statement issued this evening, the director of the Vatican Press Office Greg Burke said Pope Francis’ “priority” is “to listen to the victims, ask pardon and respect the confidentiality of these conversations,” and so at his expressed wish “no official communique of the content of these [personal encounters] is envisaged.” Francis wants to emphasize that this is serious business, not a public relations exercise.
The statement said that “in this climate of trust and of reparation for the suffering [of the victims], Pope Francis wishes to let those invited speak for all the time that is necessary, in such a way that there are no fixed times nor pre-established contents [for the conversations].
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