VATICAN CITY
Hot Air
[with video]
JULY 7, 2014 BY ED MORRISSEY
Pope Francis met for the first time with sex-abuse victims today, celebrating Mass with them at the Vatican and meeting separately afterward for 30 minutes at his residence. Francis begged their forgiveness and pledged to combat abuse throughout the church and the world, an effort begun earlier with a new task force to oversee the effort. One member of that panel, an abuse survivor herself, attended the Mass and the meeting:
Pope Francis begged forgiveness Monday from the victims of clergy sex abuse as he held his first meeting with several abuse survivors — but another victim called the gathering nothing more than “a PR event.”
The Vatican quoted Francis as expressing personal “sorrow” in his homily at a private Mass with six victims for the “sins and grave crimes” of clerical sex abuse against them.
Francis pledged “not to tolerate harm done to a minor by any individual, whether a cleric or not,” and promised that bishops “will be held accountable.”
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