UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast
Jason Berry
The Pope’s disparaging remarks about an abuse scandal in Chile have survivors and Vatican watchers wondering whether Francis is really committed to cracking down on predator priests.
Peter Saunders last saw Pope Francis three weeks ago at the Vatican.
A London activist abused as a boy by two Jesuits at a Wimbledon school, Saunders, 57, was appointed in December 2014 to a papal advisory commission on protecting children.
After the commission’s October 14 meeting, Saunders met privately with Francis, as he explained to The Daily Beast in a telephone interview.
Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Francis’s point man on the abuse crisis, ushered Saunders in to see the pope. Pope Francis and Saunders first met in July 2014, one-on-one, at the papal residence Casa Santa Marta. At O’Malley’s invitation, Saunders recounted his history of abuse and recovery, to which Francis listened, and apologized. Several months later, O’Malley invited Saunders to join the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
As founder of a front-line activist group in the U.K, the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, Saunders, at least on paper, was a natural choice as the Vatican sought credibility for internal reform.
Saunders still goes to Mass, and still sees a therapist to deal with the long, cold reach of his past.
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