PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Record
BY MARINA VILLENEUVE
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD
Minutes after apologizing to survivors of priest sexual abuse survivors on Sunday morning, Pope Francis veered off script and promised a crowd of Catholic bishops and seminarians that he would hold accountable clergy members who sexually abuse children.
“I hold the stories and the suffering and the sorrow of children who were sexually abused by priests deep in my heart,” the pontiff said in Spanish to an audience of bishops, seminarians and seminary staff in St. Martin’s Chapel at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary outside Philadelphia.
“The crimes and sins of the sexual abuse of children must no longer be held in secret,” the pope said. “I pledge the zealous vigilance of the church to protect children and the promise of accountability for all.”
The pope’s words about the sex-abuse scandal that continues to haunt the Church on the last day of his first visit to the United States, where he has spoken about global inequality, immigration and the importance of family to Congress, the United Nations and hundreds of thousands of people at masses and gatherings in New York, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia. After his remarks at the seminary, he was headed for Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility to meet with inmates, their families and staff and later the capstone of his visit, an outdoor mass on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi SJ said that for an hour Sunday morning, Pope Francis met with five adults — three women, two men — who were sexually abused as children by members of clergy, family members or teachers.
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