LONDON: Pope Benedict XVI has stepped up his displays of contrition towards victims of paedophile priests on his state visit to Britain, but he still has far to go to win back public opinion, observers said.
Benedict met five British abuse victims and expressed "deep sorrow" during mass on Saturday, in the latest of several attempts to tackle an issue that is rocking the Catholic Church and which threatened to overshadow his visit.
But Peter Saunders, chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) and a victim of abuse himself as a child, said the the Pope had been put in a "bit of a corner" to make the statement.
"This trip has been dominated by the discussion of paedophilia," Marco Politi, a Vatican analyst for Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, told AFP.
"The expression of regret by the pope will not satisfy public opinion, which now demands full transparency over what has happened in the last 30 years," Politi added.
The pope broached the issue of priestly abuse before he had even landed in Edinburgh on Thursday at the start of his visit, telling journalists on his plane that the Catholic Church was not vigilant enough on the problem.
Benedict went even further on Saturday, saying in some of his clearest public statements yet on the abuse scandal which has sent shockwaves through Catholicism that he felt shame for the "unspeakable crimes".
He met four women and one man who were abused as children by priests, following similar meetings with victims while on visits to Malta -- where the pope wept as he heard their stories -- the United States and Australia.
Andrea Tornielli, a commentator on the Vatican with the Italian newsapper Il Giornale, said Saturday`s encounter was the fifth time that Benedict had met with victims of abuse since becoming pope.
"It`s a hot topic wherever the pope goes, particularly in Anglo-Saxon countries," Torinielli told AFP.
Tornielli said the paedophile scandal was "a problem which has an impact on the opinions of both the public in general and the faithful", adding that the "pope`s words are the same, they don`t seem any stronger to me."
He added that the "real novelty" of Benedict`s visit was his separate address on Saturday to a group of professionals and volunteers who are dedicated to safeguarding children in Catholic institutions.
The pope`s statements have been part of a concerted effort to convince Catholics and the wider world that the Church is now serious about tackling abuse after a series of large-scale paedophilia scandals over the past year.
Senior clerics were accused of protecting guilty priests by shifting them out of other parishes, where some offended again, instead of handing them over to face justice.
Benedict himself has faced allegations that, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger when he headed the Vatican morals watchdog and earlier as the archbishop of Munich, he failed to take action against predator priests.
The pope`s comments this weekend were firmly dismissed by Peter Isely, of the US-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
"We don`t need a Pope who is sad about crimes. We need a Pope who will prevent crimes. And his words prevent nothing," Isely said.
BDST: 0848 HRS, September 19, 2010
