Before Pope Francis
touched down in the United States, Kenneth M. O’Renick, 72, who was six
when he was abused by a priest at his parish school in Kansas City, was
brimming with optimism about the pope. Then he heard what Francis had
said to American bishops in Washington about their courage and
generosity in the face of the sexual abuse crisis.
“It just turned us
off,” he said on Sunday, after the pope announced that he had met with a
group of abuse victims in Philadelphia. “As much good as this pope has
done, what he said, we were very disappointed, very disappointed in
that. That was a big step back. That was something that hit us right
between the eyes.”