IRELAND/VATICAN CITY
Irish Times
Paddy Agnew, Patsy McGarry
Thu, Jun 26, 2014
Sources in Rome have confirmed that Pope Francis will meet clerical sex abuse victims, including Irish victims, in the Vatican sometime next week. On the papal flight back to Rome following his recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Francis told reporters that he would be meeting a group of victims, probably sometime in early July.
Vatican practice where such meetings are concerned usually entails no advance warning, with news of the encounter relayed to the media only after the victims have met the pontiff. In theory, this is to avoid any form of media concentration on what for many victims is a difficult and tortured “spiritual” moment.
However, given that Francis himself released the news on the papal flight, the only blanks to be filled in concern the names and origins of the victims. Vatican sources suggest they will come from Ireland, the US, Britain and Poland.
It is expected that the meeting will take place in the Domus Santa Marta, the Vatican bed and breakfast that Pope Francis uses as his residence in preference to the Apostolic Palace.
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