Vatican to decide whether Pope Benedict will meet sexual abuse victims in UK

However, it will be the Vatican that will decide whether the Pope will meet victims of clerical sexual abuse.

It is a decision that is the discretion of the Vatican,” Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols told journalists in London ahead of the papal visit.

“If it will take place, it will not be pre-announced and would be strictly private,” the Archbishop explained. “It is proper for this meeting to take place privately to protect those who will participate in it, who are particularly vulnerable,” he added.

Italian news agency ASCA has reported last Tuesday that in view of Ratzinger’s visit to the UK from 14 and 17 September 2010, “there have been claims on the possibility of a meeting with the victims of sexual abuse”, as he had done in Australia and the United States in 2008 and in Malta last April.

In Malta, the 20-minute private meeting with eight out of the then ten declared victims of clerical abuse at St Joseph’s Home in Santa Venera took place shortly after 12.30pm at the Apostolic Nunciature in Rabat.

The meeting took place immediately after Pope Benedict XVI had concluded the recital of the Regina Coeli at the Granaries, 45 minutes behind schedule.

After Pope Benedict XVI’s private meeting with the victims, Vatican spokesperson Federico Lombardi told a packed news conference shortly after 2pm how the Pope had expressed the Catholic Church’s “shame and anger” for the facts that had taken place.

Lombardi said that this meeting had “a significant and strong impact” on the Pope.  Even Maltese Archbishop Paul Cremona and his collaborators were reported as having cried with the emotion at what was happening.

Lawrence Grech, who had led the battle for justice single-handedly for the past seven years, had told sister paper Illum: “I saw the Pope crying with emotion.

“I feel a re-born Catholic, full of confidence and courage for the future, and this meeting has served so that I and my fellow victims have now found some form of closure and comfort for the huge psychological burden that we have suffered over all these years,” Grech had added.

The abuse victims had been informed about the impeding meeting with Pope Benedict XVI while he was celebrating Mass at the Granaries attended by around 50,000 people.

A telephone call instructed them to meet at St Catherine’s Chapel in Attard, half-way the way to the Nunciature, where they were taken with a police escort to the Apostolic Nunciature.

When the men entered the Nunciature, they were welcomed the Papal entourage, who at the time were preparing for lunch.

At the end of the mass, Pope Benedict XVI, this time in a black Chevrolet car, was driven to the Nunciature when he immediately met the eight victims.

During the meeting, the Pope went personally on each of the eight men and said special prayers for them. He also handed over a rosary and a small gold rosary blessed by the Pope himself to all the victims present.