PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Washington Post
By Emma Brown and Frances Stead Sellers September 27
PHILADELPHIA — On the final day of his visit to the United States, Pope Francis met Sunday morning with five victims of clergy sexual abuse at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary — a much anticipated event in a city still scarred by the scandal.
“God weeps,” Francis told a gathering of bishops afterwards, departing from his prepared speech. “I commit to a careful oversight of the church to ensure that youth are protected, and I promise that all those responsible will be held accountable.”
Pope Francis met later Sunday morning with about 100 inmates at the largest of Philadelphia’s six prisons, telling them “all of us need to be cleansed, to be washed.” He waded into the audience of prisoners clad in light blue uniforms, grasping their hands and touching their heads and hugging at least one.
The two meetings served as a reminder of the great tension that surrounds the U.S. Catholic Church: Its handling of sexual abuse remains one of its most profound failings, but its message of redemption and forgiveness displays its enduring moral power.
“I am profoundly sorry that your innocence was violated by those who you trusted,” Francis told the sex abuse victims, according to his prepared remarks that were released by the Vatican. “We promise to support your continued healing and to always be vigilant to protect the children of today and tomorrow.” …
Kevin Waldrip, 64, who was abused on his 13th birthday by “a priest who was one of the first to be convicted,” was unmoved by the pope’s meeting and by his statement afterwards.
“God may weep,” he said, “but [the pope] certainly doesn’t and the church doesn’t. They’ve proven it again and again.”
The pope’s meeting with sexual abuse victims came hours before he is scheduled to celebrate an outdoor Mass before a crowd that could swell into the hundreds of thousands.
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