Victims Demand Meeting With Pope
News // Oct 9 2011
AFP/Rome
Italian victims of paedophile priests demanded to meet Pope Benedict XVI in an open letter published yesterday, accusing papal officials of blocking them.
“We have gone through all the official channels possible in order to meet you, but have been given nothing but evasive replies,” the letter from various associations of child abuse victims said. “We are forced, alas, to admit the extent to which the victims of paedophile criminals are treated with disdain, as if they have the plague.”
The letter noted that the Pope had met people abused by priests when young in Australia, Britain, Malta, the United States and most recently in his native Germany, but not in Italy.
“We cannot speak to you face to face to express our grief and frustration in the face of so many words and so few acts,” it added. “We ask you for an audience in the hope of being listened to, to understand the real meaning of your words when you express your sadness and shame.”
The letter asked for a meeting with the Pope on Tuesday, the day after the head of one of the associations that signed the letter, Francesco Zanardi, is due to arrive at the Vatican at the end of a protest walk across Italy begun last month.
http://www.bobtuskin.com/2011/10/09/italia...ting-with-pope/
