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	Group: Pope Visit Prompts New Claims of Abuse by Priests By Steve Ritea Newsday April 21, 2008 http://www.newsday.com/news/local/crime/ny-lisnap215658711apr21,0,3987390.story The pope's visit and his acknowledging sexual abuse by priests within the church has prompted dozens of people to come forward and claim they were molested as children, the president of a victim support group said yesterday. "We've been inundated with calls," said Barbara Blaine, president of the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a national organization. "Several are saying that they never told anyone." Any media coverage of the issue often prompts new people to come forward, Blaine said, noting several hundred calls her organization received in 2002, when America's Catholic bishops approved a toughened sex abuse policy after scores of molestation charges against priests became public. In his address to the nation's Catholic bishops Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI said that the sexual abuse scandal had been "very badly handled." The pope met later with victims of clergy sexual abuse, in a historic visit. "It was because the topic was addressed and for some people [who came forward] it was because they're angry," Blaine said. "Others just want to be counted." Her group, formed two decades ago, has about 8,000 members today, Blaine said. "We think it would have been far better if he had backed up the statements with action," like sanctioning bishops who failed to report and discipline priests, she said. Hauppauge resident Dan Bartley, president of Voice of the Faithful, a national organization of lay Catholics seeking church reforms, said, "It's a start," but added: "We're still in a situation where the underlying issues that caused the sexual abuse crisis in the first place remain unaddressed." The Rev. Robert Hoatson of West Orange, N.J., who helped co-found a victims group, Road to Recovery Inc., said they've received calls from five new victims in the last three days, one from Suffolk County. "For most of the victims who do pick up the phone and call, it's the beginning of a healing process," Blaine said.
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