Abuse Victims Want To Meet Pope

Abuse victims send letter request a meeting with the Pope:

Victims of abuse by a former priest yesterday submitted a letter to the Vatican, asking for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI and urging him to apologise to all victims of clergy abuse.

The Rev Thomas Doyle, a Dominican priest, lawyer and longtime advocate for sex abuse victims, entered one of the Vatican's gates to deliver the letter, which also asks the pope to dismiss any official involved in covering up the scandal and to instruct bishops to cooperate in the investigation of suspected cases.

The appeal was signed by Ann Jyono and Nancy Sloan, two victims of defrocked Irish priest Oliver O'Grady, who admits molesting as many as 25 children while a parish priest in California. He served seven years in prison for abusing two brothers and was deported to Ireland in 2001.

The Vatican had no immediate comment.
"I've often said that it's soul murder; their souls are taken away from them by the priests that do it, but what makes it worse is the way they are treated by their bishops," Doyle said.

Victims of clergy abuse charge that bishops covered up the scandal, ignoring the victims' complaints and protecting paedophile priests by moving them from parish to parish each time new cases surfaced.

"Until they acknowledge us and help us to weed out the bad people in the church ... how can I heal?" Jyono said as she broke down in tears in front of the Vatican gates. "I want my faith back but I need their help."

It is a difficult road for recovery if one has lost their sense of faith.