Pope Meets Abuse Survivors; Attorney Says Action Needed

By David Unze
St. Cloud Times
July 7, 2014

http://www.sctimes.com/story/news/local/2014/07/07/pope-francis-sex-abuse-clergy-michael-bryant-snap-vatican/12314531/

Pope Francis greets faithful at the end of the general audience in St. Peter square of Vatican City, Vatican, on May 21. On Monday he met with clergy sex abuse survivors at the Vatican.

Pope Francis meeting with survivors of clergy sex abuse and expressing sorrow for the crimes committed by priests is a positive step, but he needs to do more, according to a St. Cloud-area lawyer who is represents survivors of abuse.

"It's like everything else," said attorney Michael Bryant. "It's going to come down to what action is taken as a follow-up. There's a couple different times in history where the church has given lip service to feeling bad about it. They should feel bad about it. It's a horrible incident. The reality is, what do they do about it?"

Bryant represents a man suing St. John's Abbey and an abbey monk who is accused of abuse. He said he has more hope that Pope Francis will have a positive impact on the issue of abusive priests and protecting children than his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.

Pope Francis met and prayed with six European victims of pedophile priests for the first time Monday and went further than any of his predecessors by vowing to hold bishops accountable for their handling of pedophile priests.

The encounter with victims from Britain, Ireland and Germany was low key. They met the pope briefly Sunday night, and then joined him for a private Mass on Monday morning, according to Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi. After that, he met with each in his private apartment for about 30 minutes of informal discussions about their individual experiences.

The Vatican did not release the names of the victims, and none attended Lombardi's briefing to the media. However, the Vatican said Francis expressed "sorrow" for the "sins and grave crimes" of the clerical abuse against them.

"I beg your forgiveness, too, for the sins of omission on the part of church leaders who did not respond adequately" to reports of sex abuse, the pope said.

Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, met with victims several times while traveling, starting in 2008. However, the latest meetings marked the first time sex abuse victims have met with a pontiff on the Vatican grounds.

The question is, where do we go from here, Bryant said. The church has fought attempts by survivor groups to get access to the files of abusive priests, and there remain problems worldwide with cover-ups of abuse, he said.

"Unless they really address those problems and really help those survivors, this is nothing but a hollow statement from someone who should feel bad for what they did," Bryant said.

St. John's Abbey Abbot John Klassen declined to comment on the pope's meeting with victims of clergy sex abuse, saying through a spokesman that "the pope's words and actions stand on their own."

Leaders of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests released statements Monday that echoed what Bryant said, that more needs to be done.

"As he has done for millions over the past year, today Pope Francis seems to have won the hearts of six clergy sex abuse victims with his humble, kind personality," Barbara Blaine, president of SNAP. "Sadly, however, kids and Catholics need a leader who combines these traits with the toughness to fire complicit church officials."

This article contains information from USA TODAY.

Contact: dunze@stcloudtimes.com