By Jonathan Petre and Nick Pisa
Daily Mail
September 5, 2010
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1309189/Pope-bids-defuse-clerical-abuse-row-meeting-victims-visit-Britain.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Pope Benedict XVI will secretly meet victims of clerical sex abuse during his visit to Britain this month in an attempt to defuse the scandal.
Vatican sources said a meeting during the four-day visit, which begins on September 16, was now ‘all but certain’.
A Church spokesman refused to comment but one insider said it was expected to occur soon after the Pope’s arrival in the hope it will prevent the controversy overshadowing the visit.
 |
| Reaching out: Pope Benedict XVI hopes to defuse tension during his UK visit |
The Pope has met victims on past overseas trips, but public anger has been stoked in recent months by a series of revelations of clerical abuse in Ireland and in Europe, including his native Germany.
A major British Catholic independent school, St Benedict’s in Ealing, West London, is under investigation over the activities of former staff.
Vatican planners are concerned that the visit could be dominated by angry demonstrations over the scandal, which has deeply damaged the Church’s reputation around the world.
Details of the meeting will be kept secret until it is over to protect the identities and sensitivities of those involved.
Church officials had apparently struggled to find victims willing to meet the Pope in private but insiders said that difficulty had been overcome.
A leading Catholic campaigner on abuse said her group had not been involved in arranging the meeting and attacked the Church’s strategy.
Margaret Kennedy, who runs Minister and Clergy Sex Abuse Survivors (Macsas), said: ‘I have heard there will be victims meeting the Pope but I don’t know who they are. It is a meaningless gesture because unless the Vatican puts a structured plan in place to support victims, what is the point of the Pope meeting them?’
The Church has rejected claims that the Pope was involved in covering up abuse by priests and the Vatican has accused parts of the media of waging a ‘despicable campaign of defamation’ against him.
In June, the Pope begged for forgiveness from God and abuse victims in a sermon to priests in Rome. Two months earlier he met eight victims on a visit to Malta and was reportedly reduced to tears.
But victims’ groups such as Macsas have called on the Pope not just to apologise, but to ‘acknowledge and take responsibility’ for the harm caused.
Some groups have said they will attempt a citizen’s arrest of the Pope over his alleged cover-up of abuse, with several human rights lawyers such as Geoffrey Robertson QC arguing that he should face a trial.
Senior police officers said such attempts would be resisted because they had ‘authoritative’ legal advice that the Pope will be fully protected by diplomatic immunity on the trip, during which he will meet the Queen.
A Church spokesman refused to comment.
* A speech by the Pope will mark Tony Blair’s first appearance with Gordon Brown since he ferociously attacked his successor in his new memoirs.
In a potentially tense encounter, Mr Blair and Mr Brown will sit side by side at the keynote address at Westminster, joining a line-up of former Prime Ministers including Baroness Thatcher and Sir John Major.
In his book A Journey, Mr Blair described Mr Brown as ‘maddening’ and their relationship as ‘very, very difficult’. Insiders said that although Mr Blair claims he is still a friend of Mr Brown, any meeting would be ‘awkward in the extreme’.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.