Pope Benedict XVI wept as he met Maltese victims of the pedophile priest scandals rocking the Roman Catholic Church on Sunday and expressed his own “shame and sorrow.”
“He listened to us individually, and prayed and cried with us,” said Lawrence Grech, one of eight abuse victims who met the pope for 25 minutes in the Vatican’s embassy in Malta.
The Vatican said that Benedict had “expressed his shame and sorrow over what victims and their families have suffered.”
The pope “prayed with them and assured them that the Church is doing, and will continue to do, all in its power to investigate allegations [and] to bring to justice those responsible for abuse,” a Vatican statement said.
Benedict promised the victims “effective measures designed to safeguard young people in the future,” it said.
“I was impressed by the humility of the pope,” Grech said. “He was ready to take on the embarrassment [for deeds] done by others. He was very courageous.”
“He even blessed a cross I had and thanked me for speaking out about the abuse,” he said, struggling to hold back his tears.
Earlier, he said he had wanted an apology, but now his anger had subsided and he was satisfied with his meeting with the pope, “the topmost person who could have listened to me and my story.”
“I will continue my battle, not against the Church, but against pedophilia,” he said.
Malta recently joined the list of countries shattered by pedophilia priest scandals in the past several months.
Grech and other members of the group gave a press conference last week at which they told how they were abused at an orphanage in central Malta run by priests.
Benedict, who met with victims in Australia and the US in 2008, has come under increasing pressure over allegations that the Vatican hierarchy, himself included, helped protect predator priests.
While the Vatican and senior bishops have rallied around the pope, the Catholic leadership has faced mounting pressure to repair the Church’s image.
On the flight to Malta on Saturday, the pope said the Catholic Church had been “wounded by our sins.”
“Malta loves Christ, who loves his Church which is his body, even if this body is wounded by our sins,” he said.
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