‘God weeps’ over child abuse, says Pope

Francis was also scheduled to visit a prison and celebrate a final Mass on U.S. soil on Philadelphia’s grandest boulevard, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Her No. 1 take away from the experience: “Being able to talk with people, and helping them connect with their faith, has meant more to me than anything”.

Mark Rozzi, a Pennsylvania state legislator who was raped by his parish priest as a young teen, said he welcomed Francis’ change in tone. “There were times when people would push against us”.

“His lasting impression is family and love, and I think he’s really exudes that”, said Stella Volpe, a professor from the Philadelphia area who spent hours waiting in lines, security checkpoints, and traffic in order to catch a glimpse of Pope Francis. “We’ve all been guilty of not being tender”.

Following the pope’s visit to Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, a network of community organizations called PICO National Network will begin a series of prayer vigils and meetings across the country over the next 40 days to draw attention to mass incarceration and the privatization of portions of the prison system. “He asks us to go through life, our everyday life, encouraging all these little signs of love as signs of his own living and active presence in our world“.

“The chair is very handsome”, he told them. “This is no longer the case”, the pope said. He shook hands and hugged several who got up to greet him.

In the day’s Mass readings, Pope Francis pointed out, both Moses and Jesus rebuked their followers for the same reason: trying to put limits on God’s works.

Francis met inmates and a few members of their families at a basketball gym at the prison.

It has been a common sentiment throughout the pope’s American visit.

“That’s how you want to spend it, with your family”, said Betty Manzoni. “And it helps remind us not to judge, that we all have our issues”.

Earlier in the day, in a gesture of reconciliation, he met victims of child sexual abuse and told them he was “deeply sorry” for the times they came forward to tell their story and were not believed. “I pledge the zealous vigilance of the church to protect children and the promise of accountability for all”.

“We humbly owe each one of you and your families our gratitude for your huge courage to shine the light of Christ on the evil of the sexual abuse of children”, Francis said.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said that at the morning meeting in Philadelphia’s seminary, the pope “expressed participation in their suffering and pain and shame”.

The Catholic Church will be efficient in fighting and preventing “crimes of abuse”, he added. The Roman Catholic Church in the United States has been embroiled in child sex scandals.

One rare criticism of the pope during his six-day trip to Washington, New York and Philadelphia, which ended Sunday with a giant open-air mass, was that he did not have such a meeting on his public agenda.

Last year, the United Nations strongly criticised the Church for failing to stamp out abuse and for allowing cover-ups.

Twelve USA dioceses have filed for bankruptcy in part due to hefty settlements, more than $3 billion nationwide, paid to victims.