Pope meets with victims of clergy sex abuse

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Pope Benedict XVI met privately Thursday with victims of clergy sex abuse during his trip to the United States. The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a papal spokesman, said that Benedict and Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley met with a small group of victims and offered them encouragement and hope. Lombardi said the pope told victims he would pray for them, their families and all victims of clergy sex abuse. Benedict has spoken repeatedly about the abuse crisis during his first trip to the United States as pope. He called the crisis a cause of "deep shame," pledged to keep pedophiles out of the priesthood and decried the "enormous pain" that communities have suffered from such "gravely immoral behavior" by priest.