UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph
By Nick Squires, Rome
Pope Francis will for the first time meet victims of clerical sex abuse, including British victims, at the Vatican next week.
Sources confirmed to The Telegraph that the encounter, which will also include Irish, Polish and American victims, will take place at his private residence, Casa Santa Martha, a Vatican guesthouse in the shadow of St Peter’s Basilica.
It will be the first such meeting of Francis’s pontificate, after he was elected in March last year as the successor to Benedict XVI, who also met groups of victims.
It will be a private meeting and the Vatican is keen to keep the exact date and time under wraps.
Such encounters could help the process of healing for people left traumatised by their childhood experiences, one former victim of sex abuse said.
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