THE SUNDAY TIMES: Victims of clerical sex abuse in Malta have described how they wept as they prayed with the Pope today after he agreed to meet them on his trip to the island. They said that the Pope also had “tears in his eyes”.
The eight victims, who were abused systematically at an orphanage in Malta in the 1980s and 1990s, have long campaigned for the Church authorities to recognise their suffering in the face of decades of cover-ups from the Vatican downwards.
Vatican officials said that the Pope, who the Vatican claims has “done more than anyone” to clean up the Church, was “deeply moved” by the men’s descriptions of their experiences and had expressed “shame and sorrow”.
The Vatican confirmed that the men, who were “sexually abused by members of the clergy” as children and teenagers, had prayed with the pontiff in the chapel of the Apostolic Nunciature at Rabat, in Malta, after he returned from an open air Mass at Valletta, Lawrence Grech, 37, the spokesman for the group of former pupils at St Joseph’s Home, in Santa Venera, said: “We all cried”. He added: “After 25 years now I can go back to church.” Asked if the Pope had apologised for the abuse, he said: “He did not have to say sorry because the abuse was not the fault of one person.”
No media were allowed at the encounter, which began and ended with a silent joint prayer, Father Federico Lombardi, the papal spokesman said.
In a statement the Vatican said: “The Pope was deeply moved by their stories and expressed his shame and sorrow over what victims and their families have suffered.
“He prayed with them and assured them that the Church is doing, and will continue to do, all in its power to investigate allegations, to bring to justice those responsible for abuse and to implement effective measures designed to safeguard young people in the future.” >>> Richard Owen in Valletta | Sunday, April 18, 2010
