Pope Francis blasts Portugal clergy for response to sex abuse cases

Pope Francis met with survivors of clergy sexual abuse in Portugal on Wednesday and blasted members of the country's Catholic hierarchy for their response to the long-ignored scandal, which he said had marred the Catholic Church and helped drive the faithful away.

Francis dove head-on into the crisis roiling the Portuguese church on the first day of a five-day visit to Lisbon for the Catholic Church's World Youth Day festival. His trip comes at a delicate moment for the Portuguese church; a panel of experts hired by Portugal's bishops reported in February that priests and other church personnel may have abused at least 4,815 boys and girls since 1950.

The Vatican said Francis met with 13 abuse victims for more than an hour at the Vatican Embassy and characterised the pope's role in the meeting as one of "intense listening". The victims were accompanied by church personnel in charge of child protection programmes.

The encounter, which had been expected since Francis met with survivors on previous trips abroad, was aimed at trying to help the Portuguese hierarchy and faithful come to terms with the church's own legacy of abuse and cover-up after many other European countries have gone through similar reckonings.

The response by Portugal's bishops to the expert report's findings, however, in some ways added to the problem. Prior to the report, Portuguese church officials had insisted there were only a handful of child sex abuse cases. After the document's release, the bishops initially refused to remove named abusers from ministry and said they would only compensate victims if courts ordered them to.

The meeting with victims took place after Francis presided over a vigil service for Portuguese clergy and nuns at the capital's iconic Jeronimos Monastery, where in February hundreds of people gathered to brave for victims of sex abuse after the experts' report was released.

Speaking in his native Spanish, Francis acknowledged many clergy and nuns in countries with once-thriving Catholic parishes feel weary about their vocations because the faithful are increasingly detached from their faith.

"It is often accentuated by the disappointment and anger with which some people view the church, at times due to our poor witness and the scandals that have marred her face and call us to a humble and ongoing purification, starting with the anguished cry of the victims, who must always be accepted and listened to," he said.

Bishop Jose Ornelas, the head of the Portuguese Bishops' Conference, promised in a speech to Francis to devote "our special attention to the protection of the welfare of children and the undertaking to protect them from all kinds of abuse".

Although critics have chided church officials for their sluggish response, the bishops' conference later said the pope's meeting with abuse survivors was evidence of "the path of reconciliation that the Portuguese church has been following in this area".

Portugal's bishops are committed to "putting the victims first" and "working together" with the victims on reparations and their recovery, a conference statement asserted.

The Portuguese Catholic Church also promised in March to build a memorial to victims that would be unveiled during World Youth Day, but organisers scrapped the plan a few weeks ago.