Malta: Abuse Victims Want Meeting During Papal Visit.

Pope Benedict will be visiting Malta shortly.  Victims of clerical abuse ill be waiting, and hoping to meet him.

From Associated Press:

Pope visits Malta mid-month, sex abuse cases await

VALLETTA, Malta — Pope Benedict XVI visits Malta in two weeks, and some victims of sex abuse by priests on the predominantly Roman Catholic island say they want him to use the trip to apologize for their suffering.

The trip is the first foreign visit that Benedict will make since the clerical abuse scandal tore across Europe. Noting that he has met with victims and denounced clerical abuse on previous foreign trips, the Vatican on Monday didn't rule out that the pope might break his recent silence on the matter in Malta.

Lawrence Grech, a 37-year-old man who says he was abused as a child at a church-run orphanage, has written to the Vatican demanding an apology. He said the pope should use the two-day trip April 17-18 to address himself to victims as he did in his letter to Irish Catholics last month.

"He should recognize that these things happened in Malta, reflect about the victims' suffering and issue a formal apology," Grech said.

Grech is one of 10 people who have testified behind closed doors in a case against three priests facing charges of child abuse. The proceedings have been going on for seven years.

(Read the full report)