Italian paramilitary police blocked a boulevard leading to the Vatican to prevent a march on Sunday by some 100 survivors of clergy sex abuse from reaching St. Peter’s Square, but later allowed two protesters to leave letters from the abused at the Holy See’s doorstep.
The two also left a dozen stones near the obelisk in St. Peter’s square to mark a symbolic path so other survivors might know they have company in their suffering.
The candlelit protest was the first significant demonstration in the shadow of the Vatican by people who had been raped and molested by priests as children, and organizers said it would be repeated until the Holy See takes decisive action to ensure children are safe.
PHOTO: AFP
“Today what began as quiet whispers are whispers no more,” organizer Gary Bergeron told the crowd, which included about 55 deaf Italians from a notorious Catholic institute for the deaf in Verona where dozens of students say they were sodomized by priests.
Organizers had tried to stage the march on Vatican soil, but were forced to hold it nearby after the Holy See denied permission. It is standard Vatican practice to ban non-Vatican-sponsored events from St Peter’s Square.
Sunday’s protest kicked off with the unexpected arrival of the Vatican spokesman, the Reverend Federico Lombardi, who said he had wanted to greet the organizers and had prepared a statement he hoped to read. He beat a hasty retreat to his office after a protester shouted “Shame, shame” in Italian.
Lombardi said later he left when he saw “it wasn’t going to be easy” to meet with the organizers.
Bergeron met with Lombardi later inside his Vatican office and told him that abuse survivors had been “waiting a lifetime to be able to stand up and speak out.”
Bergeron accompanied several other survivors to speak with Lombardi after the demonstration and tell them their stories. They said they asked him to pass along their request to speak with other Vatican officials; Lombardi said he listened to their concerns and reasons for gathering.
The event, which was aimed at showing survivors worldwide that they are not alone, was organized by Bergeron and Bernie McDaid, who were abused by the same Boston priest starting when they were in the sixth grade. The two have become some of the most prominent victims to speak out in the US.
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