EXCLUSIVE: Pope meets with Boston abuse victims

[Breeze54]

EXCLUSIVE: Pope meets with Boston abuse victims

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/04/exclusive_pope.html

April 17, 2008 04:12 PM

By Michael Paulson
Globe Staff

WASHINGTON _ Pope Benedict XVI, in a dramatic move likely to alter forever the image of his pontificate, met this afternoon with five victims of clergy sexual abuse from Boston.

The private meeting, which was first reported by the Globe this afternoon and has since been confirmed by the Vatican, was brokered by Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston.

The meeting took place at the papal nunciature, which is the home of the pope's ambassador to the United States. The meeting did not appear on the pope's schedule, but took place during the window between a Mass this morning at Nationals Park and a talk that he is to deliver later this afternoon to Catholic educators gathered at Catholic University of America.

A papal spokesman told the Associated Press that O'Malley presented the pontiff with a notebook listing the names of more than one thousand abuse victims from the Boston archdiocese.

The meeting between a pope and abuse victims is a huge development in the clergy sexual abuse crisis that has roiled the Catholic Church since 2002, when the Globe started publishing a series of stories about abuse by priests. The pope at the time, John Paul II, did not visit the United States after the crisis broke -- he traveled to Canada and Mexico but flew over the United States without stopping in 2002 -- and neither he nor Benedict is known to have met with abuse survivors prior to today, despite repeated requests from victims.

O’Malley facilitated the visit with victims after the pope declined his repeated entreaties to visit Boston. O’Malley had argued that the pope could best directly address the abuse issue in Boston, viewed by many as the epicenter of the crisis, but the Vatican cited the pope’s age and health in deciding to limit his travels to New York, which is the home of the United Nations, and Washington, which is the seat of the US government.

In an interview with the Globe last Friday, O’Malley said a papal visit with victims “is really his call.’’

But in the Friday interview, O’Malley said he has found meeting with victims to be very helpful.

“I think it has been very positive, in helping to understand the serious damage that is occasioned by child abuse,’’ he said. “I think in the past, people were not aware of the long-range effects. And, certainly, if you have the opportunity to meet with survivors, it becomes very apparent that this kind of tragic activity in their childhood often marks a person for life and is a source of great distress.’’

O’Malley also said meetings with victims can help some reconnect with their Catholic faith.

“It also, I think, has given me an opportunity to try and reach out to survivors and to help them to realize that in the Catholic Church we have a great sorrow for what happened to them,’’ he said. “And many of the survivors themselves, in my experience, are looking for a way to reconnect with the church. Some have walked away from the church, but others have a real desire to have a relationship with the church.”

The victims – including men and women, all of them abused as minors by priests in the Boston area – met with the 81-year-old pontiff at the papal nunciature, which is the Vatican’s Embassy here, for about a half hour. They were accompanied by O’Malley.

None of the participants could immediately be reached for comment.

But David Clohessy, the national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a telephone interview, "It’s a very long-overdue small step forward, especially if it leads to reform. Talk can produce change or complicity. We hope it's the former. But the cold, hard reality is no child is safer tomorrow than they are today.''

The scale of the abuse is still the subject of some controversy, but the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which did a study for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, found that 4,392 priests had been accused of abusing 10,667 individuals between 1950 and 2002. The crisis led in December 2002 to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard F. Law of Boston, who was criticized for failing to remove abusive priests from ministry; John Paul II named Law to oversee a prominent basilica in Rome, and appointed O'Malley to replace him as archbishop of Boston.

More....

I'm really glad he met with the victioms, for their sake, at their request.

[Tesla]

1. Sexual healing...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080418/ap_on_re_us/pope_un

"The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a papal spokesman, said that Benedict and Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley met with a group of five or six abuse victims for about 25 minutes, offering them encouragement and hope. The group from O'Malley's archdiocese were all adults, men and women, who had been molested when they were minors. Each spoke privately with the pope and the whole group prayed together.

One of the victims, Bernie McDaid, told The Associated Press that he shook the pope's hand, told him he was an altar boy and had been abused by a priest in the sacristy of his parish. The abuse, he told Benedict, was not only sexual but spiritual.

"I said, 'Holy Father, you need to know you have a cancer in your flock and I hope you will do something for this problem; you have to fix this,'" McDaid said. "He looked down at the floor and back at me, like, 'I know what you mean.' He took it in emotionally. We looked eye to eye."

Olan Horne, another Boston-area victim who prayed and talked with Benedict, told the AP, "I believe we turned the pope's head a little in the right direction."

Both men have worked with church officials in the aftermath of the crisis, and met with a new office established by U.S. bishops in response to the scandal.

Their sentiments were echoed by O'Malley, who called the meeting "a very moving experience for all who participated."

Benedict's address to the presidents of Catholic colleges and universities was among the most anticipated of his trip, but was overshadowed by the meeting with victims.

The pope, a former academic, said academic freedom has "great value" for the schools, but does not justify promoting positions that violate the Catholic faith."

[Breeze54]

3. I rather see it as psychological healing ... and vindication.

These victims needed this and needed the Pope to recognize it.

That's what one of the victims said in an interview this morning.

She said now he can put a face to the word 'victim'.

[vi5]

2. I'm loathe to admit it, but I'll give him credit....

....for meeting with them, and like the one victim stated, addressing them directly and not through proxy or spokesperson. Good for him and credit where it's due. Doesn't undo the damage that was done on this or other issues of sexuality, but it's a positive step in a direction of healing and aknowledgement.

Also, I read somewhere although I don't know if it's accurate or not that he also made some statement where he explicitly differentiated between this scandal which is pedophilia, and homosexuality which is most obviously not. I haven't seen that quote myself but if he did, then another positive step.

[Breeze54]

4. He did do that... I posted that article 2 days ago...

He said he was not talking about homosexuality, "as that is a completely different thing."

I'll hunt up that post for you, if you like...

[Breeze54]

5. Here's the article where he said that....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3163400

[vi5]

6. Thanks....

I'm no fan of the church or this pope (I'm an atheist, raised catholic). And perhaps some of this could cynically be called covering his own *ss for his role in this. But the basic words of differentiating what happened from homosexuality is at least something that SHOULD be said, and that he gains nothing in particular from saying other than a sense of right and wrong.

Like I said, credit where it's due.

[Breeze54]

7. Te be fair, he wasn't Pope until 19 April 2005, after the abuse was reported.

Pope Benedict XVI He was elected on 19 April 2005 in a papal conclave, celebrated his Papal Inauguration Mass on 24 April 2005, and took possession of his cathedral, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, on 7 May 2005. Pope Benedict XVI has both German and Vatican citizenship. He succeeded Pope John Paul II.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_XVI

[vi5]

8. I more meant covering the church's behind....

..than his personally since these suits are still out there.

[RB TexLa]

9. On that point. The US conf of bishops last year pass a resolution to recommend against

psychiatric treatment for homosexuality. They didn't go quite far enough but churches tend to move very slow on social change and acceptance.