Pope holds surprise meeting with clergy abuse victims

By Philip Pullella

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pope Benedict held emotional meetings on Thursday with people who were sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests in what was believed to be the first encounter between a pope and victims of clergy abuse.

The Vatican said Cardinal Sean O'Malley, the current archbishop of Boston, accompanied the group to the session, which was not made public until after it had taken place.

"They prayed with the Holy Father, who afterward listened to their personal accounts and offered them words of encouragement and hope," a Vatican statement said.

"His holiness assured them of his prayers for their intentions, for their families and for all victims of sexual abuse," it said.

The pope met with the victims on Thursday afternoon in the chapel of the Vatican Embassy in Washington, where the pope is on the third day of his first visit to the United States as pontiff.

Benedict's trip to Washington and New York this week marks the first U.S. visit by a pontiff since a wave of sex abuse scandals began in 2002, provoking lawsuits that have forced dioceses to pay more than $2 billion in settlements.

The United States' paedophile priest scandal first erupted in Boston, where many leaders of the archdiocese were found to have moved priests who abused minors to new parishes instead of defrocking them or reporting them to authorities.

O'Malley replaced Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law, who had to resign in December 2002.