Apr 18, 2008 1:53 pm US/Eastern
Stance On Sex Abuse May Be Pope's Defining Moment
WASHINGTON (CBS) ―
Flocked by thousands during his visit to the U.S., Pope Benedict XVI met President Bush, celebrated his 81st birthday, and addressed the United Nations, but it is his stance on the clergy sex abuse crisis that may define his trip.
On Thursday, Benedict met privately with abuse victims between an open-air Mass at Nationals Park and a meeting with Catholic educators.
"No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse," Benedict said during a meeting with five sex abuse victims from the Boston area.
The pope offered the victims encouragement and hope. The victims were all adults, men and women, who had been molested when they were minors. Each spoke privately with the pope and the whole group prayed together.
One of the victims, Bernie McDaid, said that he shook the pope's hand, told him he was an altar boy and had been abused by a priest in the sacristy of his parish. The abuse, he told Benedict, was not only sexual but spiritual.
"I said, 'Holy Father, you need to know you have a cancer in your flock and I hope you will do something for this problem; you have to fix this,"' McDaid said. "He looked down at the floor and back at me, like, 'I know what you mean.' He took it in emotionally. We looked eye to eye."
Olan Horne, another Boston-area victim who prayed and talked with Benedict said, "I believe we turned the pope's head a little in the right direction."
Both men have worked with church officials in the aftermath of the crisis, and met with a new office established by U.S. bishops in response to the scandal.
Their sentiments were echoed by O'Malley, who called the meeting "a very moving experience for all who participated."
Benedict's address to the presidents of Catholic colleges and universities was among the most anticipated of his trip, but was overshadowed by the meeting with victims.
Gary Bergeron, 45, an outspoken survivor of clergy sex abuse from Boston, failed in his attempt to meet with Pope John Paul II, Benedict's predecessor, when he spent a week at the Vatican a few years ago.
He called Thursday's meeting "a long-sought-for step in the right direction."
Not everyone agrees - the pope's visit to New York drew protests from a group calling itself Forum for Protection of Religious Pluralism. Queens contractor William Salazar, who identified himself as a Navajo Indian, said Catholic priests "came to America and they killed our children. Now the pope is sending priests all over the world who are raping our children."
Thousands of priests have been accused of molesting minors in the U.S. since 1950 and the church has paid out more than $2 billion, much of it in just the last six years, when the case of a serial molester in Boston gained national attention and prompted many victims to step forward.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
