Pope Leo holds first meeting with survivors of Catholic sexual abuse

Vatican City - Pope Leo met with survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy for the first time on Monday, participants said, days after the Vatican's child protection commission accused senior Church leaders of being too slow to help victims.

Leo held a meeting with Ending Clergy Abuse, an international coalition of survivors, the group said. The encounter, which included six abuse victims, lasted about an hour and was "a significant moment of dialogue," they said.

The 1.4-billion-member Church has been shaken for decades by scandals across the world involving abuse and cover-up, damaging its credibility and costing it hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.

An unusually critical report from the Vatican's own child protection commission, issued on Thursday, faulted senior bishops for not providing information to victims about how their reports of abuse were being handled, or whether negligent bishops had been sanctioned.

Gemma Hickey, a Canadian survivor who took part in Monday's meeting, said Leo met with the victims in his office at the Vatican's apostolic palace, took pictures with them, and listened carefully.

"Pope Leo is very warm, he listened," she said. "We told him that we come as bridge-builders, ready to walk together toward truth, justice and healing."

"I left the meeting with hope," said Janet Aguti, a Ugandan survivor who was also at the meeting. "It is a big step for us."

Leo, the first U.S. pope, was elected on May 8 to replace the late Pope Francis. Survivors said he told them he was still coming to grips with the enormity of the Church's scandals.

"I think he is still in a phase where he is trying to find out how to best address these issues," said Matthias Katsch.

"The times where a pope is saying one sentence and everything is settled is over," Katsch added.

Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, is known to have met with survivors earlier in his career, when he was a missionary and bishop in Peru.

Francis, who died in April, made addressing abuse by clergy a priority of his 12-year papacy, with mixed results. The late pope met with abuse victims many times, often during his foreign trips.

(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Editing by Gavin Jones)