Tearful Pope pledges church will better protect young from abuse

POPE BENEDICT XVI met yesterday with a group of clerical sex abuse victims and promised them with tears in his eyes that the Catholic Church would seek justice for paedophile priests and implement “effective measures” to protect young people from abuse.

Benedict expressed his “shame and sorrow” at the pain the men and their families suffered and prayed with them during the meeting at the Vatican’s embassy in Malta, the Vatican said.

It was the first time Benedict had met with abuse victims since the worldwide clerical abuse scandal engulfed the Vatican earlier this year, and it marked his most personal and forceful statement on the spiralling abuse scandal since a letter to the Irish faithful a month ago.