Pope Meets with Abuse Victims

The pope’s repentance tour begins: During his first trip abroad since the furor over his complicity in priest-abuse scandals broke, Pope Benedict XVI met with eight men who had been abused at a Catholic orphanage on Malta. In a statement, the Vatican said the pope “was deeply moved by their stories and expressed his shame and sorrow over what victims and their families have suffered” and that he “assured them that the church is doing, and will continue to do, all in its power to investigate allegations, to bring to justice those responsible for abuse.” The Maltese victims complain that, seven years after they reported the abuse, the Malta diocese has still not decided how proceed against the four accused priests, none of whom have been defrocked.