Sawt Falasteen - Pope Leo holds first meeting with abuse survivors' group

"Our goal was to establish a relationship with him and to get a commitment to ongoing discussion, and he was open to both," Tim Law, co-founder of the US-based Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), told AFP afterwards.

The meeting, held with advocates representing survivors of clergy abuse from more than 30 countries, was scheduled for 20 minutes but lasted an hour, he said.

The group asked Pope Leo for the Vatican to extend a "zero tolerance" rule on abuse already adopted in the United States to the rest of the Church.

Under a charter established by US bishops, a Catholic priest or deacon is permanently removed from ministry when even a single act of sexual abuse of a minor is proved or otherwise admitted.

"He (Pope Leo) says that's tough, he says there's great resistance in certain areas of the world to a universal law," Law said.

"Then we had some discussion about what that entailed."

Law conceded there was "only so much he can do" as pope, noting that when his predecessor Francis opened the door to blessings for same-sex couples, the idea was rejected by many African bishops.

"So that's why we want to be in the room, and he actually used that phrase back to us, about us being in the room, so that we can find out where the resistance is and if there any way we can talk it through," Law said.

The ECA had written to Pope Leo to ask for a meeting after his election as head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics in May.

Law described it as a "big step", "historic" and "amazing".

He said they discussed last week's report from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which set out how many Churches were still struggling to tackle abuse.

"Our survivors in the group said frankly it was some wonderful, lovely words, but there was no action," Law told AFP.

"And he nodded, like he was agreeing. I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I think he understood."

The Vatican confirmed that Pope Leo had an audience the ECA without saying what was discussed.

C.AbuSway--SF-PST