Pope Meets With Australian Sex Victims

Pontiff Wraps Up 9-Day Visit To Australia; Visits 2 Men, 2 Women Who Were Abused By Priests

(AP)  Pope Benedict XVI met privately Monday with Australians who were sexually abused as children by priests, ending a pilgrimage to the country with a gesture of contrition over a scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church.

The pontiff held prayers and spoke with four representatives of abuse victims - two men and two women - in the last hours of his nine-day visit to Australia to attend the church's global youth festival.

The victims did not speak publicly after the meeting. Support groups for other victims dismissed the gesture as a public relations stunt.

The abuse scandal was a sour undertone to the trip for World Youth Day, which is supposed to be a celebration of faith to inspire a new generation.

On Saturday, Benedict delivered a forthright apology for the scandal, saying he was "deeply sorry" for the victims' suffering. But victims said this was not enough, and demanded that Benedict do more to provide financial compensation and psychological help for them.

The Vatican did not give details of the conversations between the pope and the victims he met for about an hour Monday "as an expression of his ongoing pastoral concern for those who have been abused by members of the church."

"He listened to their stories and offered them consolation," a Vatican statement said. "Assuring them of his spiritual closeness, he promised to continue to pray for them, their families and all victims.

"Through this paternal gesture, the holy father wished to demonstrate again his deep concern for all victims of sexual abuse," it said.

The pope, who has made trying to repair damage caused by the scandal one of the themes of his papacy, held a similar meeting with clergy abuse victims in the United States in April.

Bernard Barrett of the Broken Rites group, which estimates there are thousands of clergy sexual abuse cases in Australia, said the victims met by the pope were carefully chosen as people who would not cause trouble.

"It doesn't alter things because it's purely public relations," Barrett told the Fairfax Radio Network. "I think it's a cynical exercise."

Benedict left Australia for Rome midmorning on a chartered plane. At a brief ceremony at the airport, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd thanked the pope for coming and announced that Australia would post an ambassador in the Vatican for the first time. Former conservative Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer will take up the post next year.

In his apology, Benedict said Saturday he wanted "to acknowledge the shame, which we have all felt" about the clergy abuse and called for those responsible to be "brought to justice."

Representatives of the victims of clergy sexual abuse said the apology must be backed by Vatican orders to Australian bishops to stop what they say are efforts to cover up the extent of the problem and to block survivors' attempts to win compensation.

Benedict's pilgrimage to Australia was his furthest journey yet of his three-year papacy, and one intended to inspire a new generation of faithful while trying to overcome the dark chapter for his church from the sex abuse scandal.

Summing up his message, Benedict told pilgrims at a Mass on Sunday that a "spiritual desert" was spreading throughout the world and challenged them to shed greed and cynicism to create a new age of hope.

The Vatican said some 350,000 faithful from almost 170 countries packed the Randwick race track - many of them camping out in sleeping bags in the mild chill of the Australian winter - to hear the pope.

Benedict touched on themes for the universal church as well as Australia in particular - raising the need for the world to change its lifestyles because of global warming, relations with non-Catholics and the struggle here to rejuvenate a crisis-battered Church.

Benedict announced to the pilgrims that Madrid, Spain would host the next World Youth Day in 2011.

[tootall10142]

I wonder? Was it a supervised visitation?

[minnick8-2009]

The philosophies of women as being evil and cold gave rise to the witch hunts that permeated Europe for several hundred years. It actually turned into a frenzy of hatred. There was one town in Germany that burned 3000 women at the stake in one day.

[minnick8-2009]

The widespread popularity of monasteries and the monastic life resulted in the creation of an entire population of women who had no place in society as women had to rely on men for support; they were not allowed to work or to own property. This gave rise to the establishment of the orders of nuns.

[minnick8-2009]

Why don''''t those priest just get married like normal men.....I men to women of course? "Let each man have his own wife"....it says in the bible.

Posted by noseonurface

The practice of celibacy in the Catholic Church originated in medieval times when Catholicism was spread across Europe at the time of Constantine. The early Catholic Church got is philosopies on women and marriage from the Greeks. The Greeks believed the women had no souls and were, therefore, cold. They married to propogate the species, but for companionship and pleasure, they preferred males.
The early Catholics adopted those practices, thus creating monasteries and proclaiming that men were above marriage. After all if women were soulless, and cold, they must also be evil. Why would men want to be tied up with an evil woman? Hence the celibacy.

[tootall10142]

Rob roy you seem to be a bitter person on religon.or are you just not taking your meds like a good little boy should. does your mommy you are on the computer before you go to daycare?

[robroydonxvl]

The pope still enforces the instructions he wrote PREVENTING and demanding that the Catholic church do all it can to block and impede any further investigation of paedophilia by Christian priests

Proof positive that Christianity is nothing but a cult of paedophilia and that Christians are in all likelihood nothing but slimy paedophiles

[robroydonxvl]

Yeah right - who but a moron believes words on this subject by that stinking paedophile / paedophile supporter Joseph Ratty Benedict

[pollroller1]

When you hear about these different"Gods" that people believe in, they are referred to as men. If you talk about nature or the planet, it is usually referred to as a woman.

[juwboy]

FeelFreek4U, a subhuman Arab jihadist trying to impersonate a patriotic American.

[feelfree4u]

Re: "Why don''t those priest just get married like normal men.....I men to women of course? "Let each man have his own wife"....it says in the bible."

Posted by bignose


I don''t think that Zionists have any business commenting about the activities of normal men.

[dmhphils]

Why don''t those priest just get married like normal men.....I men to women of course? "Let each man have his own wife"....it says in the bible. Celebacy is a gift to some but not to all and it doesn''t say anything about being forbidden to marry in the bible except in a bad sense. Peter, who the Catholics insist, is the "rock" that Jesus built the church on (which is in error btw) was married.....Jesus even healed his mother-in-law.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Well....I don''''t think he was a pedophile."
Posted by shanev137

But didn''t he lay down on someone to bring them back from the dead?

Sounds like a bit of "necro" to me, I remember a news story about a funeral parlor assistant doing the same thing...

[brianbwb-2009]

"Well....I don''''t think he was a pedophile."
Posted by shanev137

But didn''t he lay down on someone to bring them back from the dead?

Sounds like a bit of "necro" to me, I remember a news story about a funeral parlor assistant doing the same thing...

[feelfree4u]

Re: "Pope Meets With Australian *** Victims"

How many did he rape on his visit?

[susanhelit]

If he wanted to show true concern, remorse for what happened, he''d stop protecting the pedophiles, and those who supported the pedophiles - such as Cardinal Law, who he''s protecting in a cozy castle in Rome so he cannot be made to testify in America.

[sistatee-2009]

Wrong. There were 600,000 youth there, the largest gathering of people in the history of Australia. Government dignitaries were there taking communion. Nice try, CBS.

[caliengineer]

And he touched on the idea of the universal church... the one prophesied in Revelation!

The Pope is now campaigning for a new "Universal" church, incorporating Islam and wicca and lesbians and ***... just as it originally did 1800 years ago. (Catholic is Latin meaning ''universal'').

And then, further fulfilling scripture, he will receive power from the beast and ride out for 42 months killing true believers.

Pray and fast. Seek God''s presence DAILY.

Read prophecies from Dumitru Duduman, Daniel Rhodes, Tom Deckard... websites like americaslastdays and watchmanradio.

[rushlimpdrug]

There was no violence or disruptive behavior reported and yet what you report is only the negative aspects of one meeting the Pope had with *** victims. The entire week was one of joyful and prayerful unity among young people around the world.
Posted by Christlike3 at 11:11 PM


Believe what you want.

It is after all your own propaganda.

If you are Christ like can you walk on water
or make water into wine.

[shanev137]

So WWJD, What Would Jesus Do?

------


Well....I don''t think he was a pedophile.

[christlike3]

Sydney, Australia opened their city to over 500,000 youth and young adults from all over the world this past week to celebrate World Youth Day 2008. There was no violence or disruptive behavior reported and yet what you report is only the negative aspects of one meeting the Pope had with *** victims. The entire week was one of joyful and prayerful unity among young people around the world.