Pope Francis said that he met victims of clerical sex abuse in Philadelphia and that "all responsible will be held accountable".
Speaking at a seminary in the city, on the final stop of his three-city tour of the United States, the pontiff said that “God weeps” in his speech after meeting five abuse survivors, three women and two men.
The group was accompanied by Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, who is chairman of a commission set up by the pope for the protection of minors
“I admit to a careful oversight to insure that youth are protected and that all responsible will be held accountable,” he told US bishops and seminarians in St Charles Borromeo Seminary.
Ending days of uncertainty about whether the pope would meet sex abuse survivors, the pontiff said that “those who have survived have become true heralds of mercy”.
“Humbly we owe each of them our gratitude for their courage, and they have had to suffer terrible abuse, sexual abuse of minors,” he said on the last day of his US visit.
“I would like to express my gratitude to the archbishop and I felt it very important that I share this message with you today.”
Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi had for days declined to say in advance whether the pope would meet victims in the US, preferring not to publicise the meetings ahead of time.
Fr Lombardi said on Sunday that the pope listened to the victim’s stories and prayed with them.
“He told them that he shared in their suffering, and he had pain and shame in particular in the case of injury caused by clergy or church workers,” Fr Lombardi said. “He renewed the commitment of the church to the effort that all victims are heard and treated with justice, that the guilty be punished and that the crimes of abuse be combated with an effective prevention activity in the Church and in society.”
Representatives of sex abuse victims criticised the pope for not addressing the victims directly earlier on his US trip when in an address to US bishops at an event in Washington on Wednesday he emphasised the pain felt by the US clergy rather than the victims.
Speaking to the bishops he praised the American church’s “generous commitment to bring healing to victims – in the knowledge that in healing we too are healed – and to work to ensure that such crimes will never be repeated”.
The Catholic Church in the US is struggling to deal with the clerical sex abuse scandal, which began in 2002 with a paedophile priest in Boston and then spread nationwide.
Three dioceses have filed for bankruptcy – in New Mexico, Wisconsin and Minnesota – to limit compensation payouts to victims and protect church assets.
Two senior members of the US church, Bishop Robert Finn in Kansas City-Missouri and Archbishop John Nienstedt in St Paul and Minneapolis stood down this year over their handling of sex abuse cases amid allegations of cover-ups.
