Pope Francis often meets on Fridays with survivors of sex abuse, he has said.
Speaking to a group of Jesuits in Lima during his visit to Peru last month he revealed that these meetings, which he said do not always become public knowledge, make it clear that the survivors’ process of recovery “is very hard”.
“They remain annihilated. Annihilated,” the Pope said at the January 19 meeting.
He added that the scandal of clerical sexual abuse shows not merely the “fragility” of the Catholic Church, but also its “hypocrisy”.
Vatican press office director Greg Burke confirmed on February 15 that these meetings are regular and ongoing.
“I can confirm that several times a month, the Holy Father meets victims of sexual abuse both individually and in groups,” said Mr Burke, continuing, “Pope Francis listens to the victims and tries to help them heal the serious wounds caused by the abuse they’ve suffered. The meetings take place with maximum reserve out of respect for the victims and their suffering.”
The Pope’s comments were published today with his approval in the Jesuit journal Civila Cattolica. They reveal how, against the backdrop of controversy over the Pontiff’s handling of cover-up allegations around the Chilean Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, one Jesuit asked about the subject of abuse, which he said was creating “desolation” in the Church.
Describing abuse as “the greatest desolation that the Church is suffering”, the Pope described it as “a great humiliation” for the Church, and a source of shame.
He rejected the notion that these should be any solace in abuse being less frequent in the Church than in other organisations or families, the Pope said “it is terrible even if only one of our brothers is such! For God anointed him to sanctify children and adults, and instead of making them holy he has destroyed them. It’s horrible! We need to listen to what someone who has been abused feels.”
The Pope then explained that he regularly meets with abuse survivors. “On Fridays – sometimes this is known and sometimes it is not known – I normally meet some of them. In Chile I also had such a meeting.”
