Pontiff to Meet Irish Sex Abuse Survivors

By Paddy Agnew
Irish Times
July 5, 2014

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/pontiff-to-meet-irish-sex-abuse-survivors-1.1856120

Irish sex abuse survivor Marie Collins, who serves on the Vatican’s Child Protection Commission, and Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin will both be in Rome on Monday, ostensibly to attend an “anglophone” Vatican meeting. Photograph: Reuters

Although the Holy See has offered no official confirmation, it seems likely that a much anticipated meeting between clerical sex abuse survivors, including Irish survivors, and Pope Francis will take place in the Vatican on Monday morning.

For much of this week, different media sources have claimed that the pope will meet a small group of survivors in his Vatican residence, the Domus Santa Marta.

It was the pope himself who announced this meeting when speaking to reporters on the papal flight on the way back to Rome, following his recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

On that occasion, he did not say when the meeting would take place but he did indicate that it would be sometime in early July.

Given that the pope’s morning Mass in Santa Marta, the Vatican residential hall that he uses in preference to the pomposity of the Apostolic Palace, has become a key aspect of his pontifical teaching, it seems only logical that the survivors of abuse will be invited to attend Mass there.

After Mass, Pope Francis is expected to spend some time with them, listening to their stories.

First meeting

This will be the first time that Francis, as pontiff, will meet clerical sex abuse survivors.

The first pope to do so was Pope Benedict during a 2008 pastoral visit to the United States.

Originally, it was believed that the pope would be meeting on Monday with Irish, US, Polish and British survivors, but this has not been confirmed.

By coincidence – or not – Irish sex abuse survivor Marie Collins, who serves on the Vatican’s Child Protection Commission, and the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, will both be in Rome on Monday, ostensibly to attend an “anglophone” Vatican meeting.