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WASHINGTON: Pope Benedict XVI met for the first time with US victims
abused by priests, offering them his support after he acknowledged
the pain and damage caused by the Church’s sex scandal.
The unprecedented encounter came on the eve of
the Pope’s address at the UN General Assembly Friday in New York,
which the Vatican said would be the highlight of his US visit.
Benedict is expected to champion human rights in
his UN address and make a groundbreaking papal visit to a synagogue
in New York, hours before the start of Passover.
The Pope arrived Tuesday for a six-day US visit
marked by his attention to the problem of pedophile priests that has
rocked the US Roman Catholic Church.
After celebrating Mass with some 48,000 people
early Thursday, he met with a small group of people who were
sexually abused by members of the clergy, the Vatican said in a
statement.
The group prayed together and the Pontiff then
listened to the stories of the victims, and “offered them words of
encouragement and hope.”
“His Holiness assured them of his prayers for
their intentions, for their families and for all victims of sexual
abuse,” the statement added.
The private meeting with five victims lasted 20
to 25 minutes, officials said.
Benedict also met privately with Jewish leaders
in Washington Thursday and urged Jews and Roman Catholics to forge
“new attitudes” to foster world peace.
“I wish to reiterate the Church’s commitment
to the dialogue that in the past 40 years has fundamentally changed
our relationship for the better,” the Pope said in a message he
read to Jewish leaders.
Some of the sexual abuse victims told CNN that
Benedict had given them hope that the Church would change.
“I said to him, Holy Father, you have a cancer
growing in your flock and you need to do something about that, and I
hope you understand me and hear me,” Bernie McDaid, who was abused
at the age of 12, told the network.
Said another victim, Olan Horne: “When you
meet somebody and you know that you don’t have to convince them
that there’s a problem, and they intrinsically understand their
role in it, you know it.
“And we could see that. We could see it in the
eyes, we could see it in the sincerity and there’s a phenomenal
hope that I came out of that meeting with.”
The Pope has already apologized several times
since the start of his first US papal visit saying he was “deeply
ashamed” of the scandal which has rocked the Catholic Church.
“No words of mine could describe the pain and
harm inflicted by such abuse,” Benedict told some 48,000 people
who gathered for a Mass early Thursday in the new Washington
Nationals ballpark celebrated by the Pontiff.
-- AFP
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