LONDON – Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday condemned as “unspeakable crimes” the child sex-abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, as more than 10,000 people demonstrated in London against his official visit to Britain.
During a mass celebrated in London, the 83-year-old German-born pontiff also expressed his “deep sorrow” to the victims of abuse by priests, which — for the first time — he classified as crimes.
Emotions ran high on the third day of the pope’s state visit to Britain Saturday, with both supporters and opponents of the Roman Catholic Church making their views forcefully known.
The pope’s remarks came as critics of the papal visit and victims of child abuse marched through central London, accusing the pontiff of “protecting pedophile priests.”
But as the demonstrators — among them victims of abuse, human rights campaigners and gay rights groups — wound their way along Piccadilly, in the center of the British capital, the pope held a surprise private meeting with five victims of clerical sex abuse.
A spokeswoman for the Catholic Church said the pope had expressed his “deep sorrow and shame” to the victims in what was described as an “emotional meeting.”
Later, thousands lined the tree-lined avenues around Buckingham Palace to catch a glimpse of the pontiff as he rode in his Popemobile to Hyde Park, where 80,000 people gathered for a prayer vigil led by the pope.
The pope’s outspoken condemnation of the child abuse scandal, which has rocked the Catholic Church in many European countries, the U.S., Canada and Australia, came during a mass celebrated in London’s Westminster Cathedral, the principal Catholic church of England and Wales.
Among the 2,000-strong congregation were a large number of dignitaries from church and public life, among them the former prime minister, Tony Blair, Britain’s most prominent contemporary convert to Catholicism.
“Here, too, I think of the immense suffering caused by the abuse of children, especially within the church and by her ministers,” the pope said in his sermon.
“Above all, I express my deep sorrow to the innocent victims of these unspeakable crimes, along with my hope that the power of Christ’s grace, his sacrifice of reconciliation, will bring deep healing and peace to their lives.”
The pope went on to acknowledge the “shame and humiliation, which all of us have suffered because of these sins,” and expressed his gratitude for the efforts being made to address the problem responsibly.
“I ask all of you to show your concern for the victims and solidarity with your priests,” he said.
“It was a good apology, he seemed to really mean it, he was genuinely sorry,” said Martin Brown, a 34-year-old Englishman who had come to listen to the pope.
But the demonstrators offered a different view.
“The pope keeps apologizing for the failings of everyone but himself,” said gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, a co-organizer of the protests.
Sue Cox, a 63-year-old Briton who said she was herself a victim of clerical sex abuse, also dismissed the apology and warned that the Vatican would “not get away with overlooking clerical sex abuse.”
“The days of popes are over. We are no longer listening to religious leaders — we get our morality from other places,” Terry Sanderson, the president of the National Secular Society in Britain, told the crowd.
Earlier Saturday, the pope met for private audiences with Prime Minister David Cameron and other political leaders.
Church sources said the pope told the British leader he had been praying for his father, Ian, who died while on holiday in France the week before, and whose funeral took place Thursday.
The pontiff also met Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister and Liberal Democrat leader, and Clegg’s Spanish wife, Miriam, who is a Roman Catholic, as are the couple’s three young boys.
Multilingual Clegg, who has described himself an atheist, spoke to the pope in Benedict’s native German to discuss European cooperation and the lessons to be learned from “20th century war and destruction” in Europe, his spokeswoman said.
The pope also received Harriet Harman, the acting leader of the opposition Labor Party.
Meanwhile, Scotland Yard continued Saturday to question six men, all said to be of North African origin, who were arrested Friday on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack on the pontiff.
However, police said nothing had so far been found to substantiate the allegations made against the men, who were employed as street cleaners in an area of central London visited by the pope.
The pope’s itinerary has not been affected and security measures, already high, have not been stepped up as a result.
The pope ended his four-day state visit to Britain Sunday with the beatification in Birmingham of Cardinal John Henry Newman, Britain’s most famous 19th century convert to Catholicism.
