– Traveled in his popemobile along Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway, kissing many babies along the way. “After three hours in security and, boom, he was going by”.
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Philadelphia’s mass transit agency reported increased ridership on special papal trains heading into the city.
Philadelphia is one of the cities where the scandal was most serious.
The pontiff disclosed the gesture of reconciliation at the start of a meeting with U.S. bishops gathered in Philadelphia.
“Within our family of faith and our human families, the sins and crimes of sexual abuse of children must no longer be held in secret and in shame”, the pope told the victims of clerical sexual abuse.
Pope Francis appealed for unity and family love to thousands of people as he celebrated a large open-air mass in Philadelphia, ending his six-day visit to the US.
“I deeply regret that some bishops failed in their responsibility to protect children”.
Before the mass Pope Francis made an unscheduled stop at St. Joseph’s University, a Jesuit school, and blessed a new statue dedicated to ties between Catholics and Jews.
It added that the Pope “renewed his commitment” to ensure that victims are treated with justice, the guilty are punished, and to effective prevention in the Church and in society, the statement said. The Roman Catholic Church in the USA has been embroiled in child sex scandals.
Later addressing a gathering of bishops at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary, Francis said, “I have in my heart the stories of suffering and pain of the minors who were sexually abused by priests”.
During the pope’s jail visit, he greeted the men one by one, along with their families, telling them to spend their time behind bars getting their lives back on track.
“They were powerful words. Now the test of his resolve will be whether he follows through”, said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a private group that has tracked the clergy sex abuse scandal and its aftermath.
“When he removes church officials he has to state the reason and they actually have to suffer some penalty”, including defrocking, she said.
In his meeting with the bishops, Francis referred to gay marriage for the first time in his United States trip, lamenting the new reality in which Christians must live.
“Pope Francis said he weeps over the victims”, Blaine said. “Instead, he wants us to encourage them, to spread them”, Francis said during the Sunday mass.
Francis announced that he had met with a group in Philadelphia on his final day during his visit to the United States before leaving for Rome. Often, three inmates are held in cells meant for two. He meets often with inmates and has washed prisoners’ feet during pre-Easter rituals.
Pope Francis was already in his auto, headed away from the Philadelphia airport, when he saw young Keating.
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At Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, Francis planned to visit with 100 inmates, including suspected killers, rapists and mobsters. “I hope that it gets better, but I’m certainly not as hopeful as I was”. He told them that they should not view their confinement as their exclusion from society. “We think that the Vatican should open up the records of abuse and turn them over to police”.
