Vatican

Pope Meets With Clerical-Abuse Victims

Expresses "shame and sorrow," will seek justice.

Is this enough to start repairing the damage? Pope Benedict XVI promised a group of clerical-abuse victims that the Catholic Church would do everything it possibly could to seek justice against abusive priests and to protect young people in the future. The Vatican said Benedict, who met with the group in Malta for the first time since the clerical-abuse scandal broke, expressed his shame and sorrow at what the men and their families have had to go through. “He prayed with them and 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 and to implement effective measures designed to safeguard young people in the future,” the Vatican said in a statement.