Clergy Abuse Victim Speaks at Weymouth Church Meeting with Pope Gave Him Hope, Patriot Ledger, June 11, 2008

Clergy-Abuse Victim Speaks at Weymouth Church
Meeting with Pope Gave Him Hope

Patriot Ledger
June 11, 2008

http://www.patriotledger.com/news/x1755164759/Clergy-abuse-victim-speaks-at-Weymouth-church

WEYMOUTH — One of the small group of clergy sex abuse victims chosen to meet with Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the United States has set a goal.

Olan Horne told a meeting of the Weymouth Voice of the Faithful that he will try to meet every American bishop he can, bringing the message that the church has an "extraordinary opportunity" to set things right.

Olan Horne was one of the five people abused by priests who met Pope Benedict during his recent visit to the U.S.
Photo by Lisa Bul

"To move the pope on this issue at this time – that's light speed in Vatican time," Horne said Tuesday at St. Albert the Great Church parish hall.

He went into the April meeting in a Washington, D.C., chapel with misgivings, but said he left encouraged.

"I'm knowing that this moment is symbolic and that a meeting with the pope is not the place things get done, but he's talking about it. He talked about it on the plane before he landed," said Horne who has been an advocate for abuse victims.

Members of Weymouth’s Voice of the Faithful chapter listen to Olan Horne talking about his meeting with Pope Benedict.
Photo by Lisa Bul

Horne, of Lowell, was abused by a priest at St. Michael's Church when he was 11.

Pope Benedict told the victims, "I wake up every day. This is the first thing I pray about," Horne said. The pope said no one had read more accounts of abuse than him.

Horne said that at one point as they talked, Pope Benedict held both his hands.

"That's a good touch. He grabbed me by the hands and pulled me in," said Horne.

Horne said he wanted the pope to understand that sexual abuse in the Catholic church is a systemic problem, and he told him that he had to speak to the issue more.

St. Albert the Great Church was scheduled to be closed in the wake of the sex abuse scandal.

Parishioners staged an around-the-clock vigil for 10 months to protest the closing and the church stayed open.