WASHINGTON (AP) - For 25 remarkable minutes, the shepherd of the world's 1 billion Catholics met with a handful of victims in the worst scandal to ever tarnish the U.S. church.
One man, abused as an altar boy, said he placed his hand over Pope Benedict XVI's heart as he pleaded with him to fix the problem of sexual abuse of minors.
The pontiff apologized to his guests for not being perfectly fluent in English, and "for everything," according to another victim.
Plans for the secret meeting were kept quiet. But two Boston-area victims of abuse shared details of the meeting in interviews late Thursday with The Associated Press.
Though Benedict had been expected to address clergy sexual abuse in his visit to the U.S., the volume and frankness of his remarks over the first half of his six-day pilgrimage have been startling.
Benedict expressed shame and a determination to do better in a talk with U.S. bishops on the plane ride over, and again Thursday at a giant open-air Mass.
The meeting that took place Thursday afternoon between a Mass at Nationals Park and an address to Catholic educators had long been in the works, but wasn't on the pope's official schedule.
Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston had high hopes Benedict would accept his invitation to visit his archdiocese to mark its 200th anniversary. When that didn't work out, O'Malley kept in touch with Archbishop Pietro Sambi, who as papal nuncio represents the Vatican in the U.S., about bringing Benedict and victims together during the trip, said the Rev. John Connolly, a special assistant to O'Malley.
"The desire to do this was definitely from the Holy Father," Connolly said.
The pope ultimately asked O'Malley to invite a small group of victims who were "both open to meeting him and would derive a spiritual benefit," Connolly said.
He found two good candidates in Bernie McDaid and Olan Horne, who were molested by priests when they were boys growing up in the Boston area.
Both men were angry at the church, but welcomed the opportunity to meet with church officials as the crisis mushroomed. The issue has dominated American Catholic life for much of this decade, starting in 2002 in Boston.
McDaid attended a meeting in which then-Boston Archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law asked for forgiveness, and traveled to Rome to meet with church officials. In 2006, Horne spoke of hope and love as O'Malley began a series of masses and services meant to bind up wounds.
The two men got to know each other; eventually their stories were portrayed in a 2005 Showtime film, "Our Fathers."
About three weeks ago over dinner, Boston church officials asked McDaid whether he would meet with Benedict if an anticipated meeting with victims came together.
"I said, 'Of course,'" McDaid said.
On Thursday morning, McDaid did something he never does. He went to Mass.
He went to accompany his mother. But when McDaid heard Benedict apologize for the sex abuse crisis, "It took me totally by surprise. It was so heartfelt and emotional, I cried."
Afterward, he found himself in a car with a police escort, barreling through Washington red lights to the Vatican residence on Embassy Row, where Benedict was staying.
There, he joined a handful of other victims in pews in the nunciature's private chapel. Continue >>
Comments
Let me try and bring our two friends in Christ together here (HopeInHisBride and canadianchristian). Yes, the Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. All believers agree on that. The rock that Hope refers to is based on this:
In Ceserea Phillipi, there was a large rock upon which was built a pagan temple for Ceasar Augustus. Within that rock was a well that the Jews were unable to get to the bottom of; they concluded that the well must go down to the gates of hell. On that side of that rock was carved an image of the pagan god Pan, the god of sheep and shepherds.
When God changes someones name, it denotes a change in ministry and authority (e.g., Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel). Would we not agree? Jesus, who is God, and spoke in Aramaic, changed Simon's name to Kepha. Matthew 16:18, in Aramaic would be translated as "you are KEPHA and on this KEPHA I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys and what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven..." See Isaiah 22:22 for the basis of the keys. It denotes authority, stewardship, being the prime minister over SOMEONE ELSE'S house until they return. That someone is Jesus. The Catholic Church does not belong to any Pope, but to Jesus.
If Jesus spoke French, it would be Pierre and Pierre, but when Jesus' words were translated from Aramaic to Greek, they didn't translate cleanly. Therefore, we end up with the Petra/Petros split, causing some to conclude that Jesus couldn't have meant Peter as the rock, but one also has to dance around the reference to the keys and God changing someone's name. It's much harder to avoid the obvious conclusion that to accept the many references that point to it.
It begs the question, then, why people who follow Jesus aren't in His Church. Here's a quote from the early Christians, 150 YEARS BEFORE WE HAD A BIBLE:
Cyprian of Carthage
"They alone have remained outside [the Church] who, were they within, would have to be ejected.
. . . There [in John 6:68–69] speaks Peter, upon whom the Church would be built, teaching in the name of the Church and showing that even if a stubborn and proud multitude withdraws because it does not wish to obey, yet the Church does not withdraw from Christ. The people joined to the priest, and the flock clinging to their shepherd in the Church. You ought to know, then, that the bishop is in the Church and the Church in the bishops; and if someone is not with the bishop, he is not in the Church. They vainly flatter themselves who creep up, not having peace with the priest of God, believing that they are secretly in communion with certain individuals. For the Church, which is one and Catholic, is not split or divided, but is indeed united and joined by the cement of priests who adhere to one another" (Letters 66[67]:8 [A.D. 253]).
Amen. Amen. I say to you. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Let the healing begin!
Hope,
I hope you're referring to our only LORD and MASTER, JESUS CHRIST!!!
For indeed he is the unshakable rock upon which the Church is founded!