Historic meeting with sex victims

WASHINGTON. Pope Benedict XVI, talked and prayed privately with clergy sex abuse survivors Thursday in what was believed to be a first-ever meeting between a pontiff and molestation victims.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a papal spokesman, said that Benedict and Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley met with a group of five or six victims for about 25 minutes in the chapel of the papal embassy.

Lombardi said the pope told the survivors he would pray for them, their families and all victims of clergy sex abuse.