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	Abuse Victims Want More Than Talk By Anna Bakalis Ventura County Star April 18, 2008 http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/apr/18/no-headline---nxxfcabuseside18/ Pope Benedict XVI's unexpected private meeting Thursday in Washington, D.C., with victims of clergy sexual abuse was an effort that struck some local victims as too little, too late. Lee Bashforth, a victim of priest sexual abuse and a former Conejo Valley resident, said after years of secrecy and denial of abuse by Vatican officials, it's time for more than words. "It's encouraging that he finally caved in and talked to victims," Bashforth said. "But it will make no difference to me or any other victim until they take action — action that will protect children." The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a papal spokesman, said Benedict and Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley met with a group of five or six victims and offered them encouragement and hope. "They prayed together. Also, each of them had their own individual time with the Holy Father," Lombardi said. "Some were in tears." The meeting came on the third day of his U.S. visit, after a packed open-air Mass was celebrated in 10 languages at a baseball stadium. But the meeting with victims happened in a quiet chapel in the papal embassy. Lombardi said it was believed to be the first-ever such session between a pope and abuse victims. $2 billion paid to victims Lombardi said the pope told victims he would pray for them, their families and all victims of clergy sex abuse. Well over 4,000 priests have been accused of molesting minors in the U.S. since 1950. The church has paid out more than $2 billion to victims — much of it in the past six years, when the case of a serial molester in Boston gained national attention, prompting many victims to step forward. In July, there was a $660 million settlement for more than 500 victims of sexual abuse by clergy members in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The archdiocese has also implemented programs to protect children from abuse. Regardless of the settlement, "full disclosure and complete accountability" of abuse is the only acceptable resolution for Manuel Vega, an Oxnard resident. Vega sued a Catholic priest for molestation and started a victims' support group called Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Vega said the Thursday meeting with the victims reminded him of when Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles apologized to Vega and gave him a rosary blessed by Pope John Paul II. "The years that it took for us to get here and the arrogance that the church put before us. My initial gut reaction is: A day late and a dollar short," Vega said of Benedict's meeting. Bashforth said it was foolish to get excited about words he considered "hollow and insincere." "Until they punish the people ultimately responsible for this, nothing will change," he said. "We want action that shows they aren't above the law." Clergy abuse victim Eric Barragan from Santa Paula said he will be satisfied only when church secrecy ends and clergy respond immediately to sexual abuse allegations. Sanctions wanted Barragan said Benedict's words should be backed with international sanctions by the Vatican for any clergy member who engages in sexual abuse or covers it up. "This needs to be mandatory in every church," Barragan said. Then churches also must work with the police and follow up with psychological and financial assistance to those victims, he said. Since visiting the United States, Benedict called the crisis a cause of "deep shame," pledged to keep pedophiles out of the priesthood and decried the "enormous pain" communities have suffered from such "gravely immoral behavior" by priests.
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