Pope Benedict XVI met victims of sexual abuse by clergy on the second day of his visit to his homeland, Germany, on Friday, an encounter that left him “deeply shaken,” Vatican officials said.
He also held joint prayers with members of the Protestant faith in Germany in a bid to build bridges between the two churches.
During a 30-minute meeting with abuse victims in Erfurt, the pope said he was “moved and deeply shaken by the sufferings of the victims,” the Vatican said. Church officials described the meeting as “very, very emotional.”
“The Holy Father expressed his deep compassion and regret over all that was done to them and their families,” a Vatican statement said.
The meeting had been keenly awaited during the 84-year-old pontiff’s visit to his homeland, which was rocked by revelations of widespread abuse over the last several decades.
“He assured the people present that those in positions of responsibility in the Church are seriously concerned to deal with all crimes of abuse and are committed to the promotion of effective measures for the protection of children and young people,” the statement said. “Pope Benedict XVI is close to the victims and he expresses the hope that the merciful God, Creator and Redeemer of all mankind, may heal the wounds of the victims and grant them inner peace.”
Hans Langendoerfer, the coordinator of the visit, said the pope met five victims of abuse, three men and two women.
The leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics had told reporters on Thursday on his flight to Germany that he sympathized with the thousands who had turned their backs on the church over the pedophile scandals.
The German Catholic Church was thrown into turmoil last year as hundreds came forward saying they were abused as minors between the 1950s and the 1980s amid allegations the crimes were swept under the carpet.
Over the past year, large-scale pedophilia scandals have rocked the Catholic Church in a number of countries, including Ireland, Austria, Belgium and the US.
Earlier on Friday, on the second leg of the tour, the pope held prayers with Protestant leaders in a show of greater Christian unity.
Benedict said the different wings of the Church should “keep in view just how much we have in common, not losing sight of it amid the pressure towards secularization — everything that makes us Christian in the first place and continues to be our gift and our task.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS