Survivors of abuse by Roman Catholic clergy took advantage Wednesday of the World Youth Day spotlight on Toronto, asking Pope John Paul to recognize their concerns and reach out to victims.
"(The Pope) has an international problem on his hands," said Nancy Mayer, who counsels victims of sexual abuse. "He has a number of clerics who have not lived the word of Jesus Christ and because of that we have many, many hurting Catholics across the world who are requiring of his understanding, his sympathy and a hand sometimes to help them with the very difficult healing journey that many of them are on."
The 82-year-old pontiff was not in Toronto on Wednesday, but vacationing at a Roman Catholic retreat on Lake Simcoe, north of the city.
Mayer helped draft a letter to the Canadian Council of Catholic Bishops asking for a national healing and resource centre for victims of abuse and for trained investigators to look into allegations of abuse in churches.
But Deacon William Kokesch, the bishops' spokesman, said he couldn't comment Wednesday on the likelihood of such a centre being created.
Nor was his organization - which co-ordinated the World Youth Day celebrations for 200,000 - planning to comment on sexual abuse by clerics during this week of festivities.
Some activists still held onto hope that the Pope himself might comment on the abuse during his two remaining public appearances in Toronto this week.
"In public speaking engagements there would be opportunities for the Pope to . . . acknowledge that there is actually a crisis of survivors across the country who are trying to rebuild their lives after the damage done by the church," said David Gagnon, head of a group called Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
"For the Pope to acknowledge that, at least in word, would be a huge step in the right direction."
The group got no response from its formal request to meet with the Pope.
But victims of sexual abuse by clergy travelled from across the country and the U.S. regardless to participate in alternative World Youth Day activities meant to draw attention to modernizing the Catholic church and coming to terms with past mistakes.
Bill Bates is one of those victims. The 64-year-old said he was abused for four years starting at age eight when he lived in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
No longer a practising Catholic, Bates made the trip from Florida to Toronto for World Youth Day bring a message to the Pope.
"The message is, Papa, if you really believe the children are the future of the church . . . what are you doing about the fact that the survivors of the survivors - that is, my children and their children - are not attending your conference? What about the ones that you abuse and virtually have thrown them aside and left them abandoned?"
Other protesters on the fringes of the youth festival included young people handing out condoms and offering Youth Day participants their thoughts on ordaining women and allowing Catholic clergy to marry.
"We're talking about clergy sexual abuse, we're talking about women's ordination, we're talking about the issues that are on the forefront of young people's minds," said Joy Barnes, who co-ordinates youth activities for the Women's Ordination Conference in Fairfax, Va.
Most World Youth Day participants Barnes had approached on the streets were receptive to her ideas about women priests, she said.
"Some (people) are very surprised because they haven't had the opportunity to really think about this reform and to really open their minds to this," Barnes said.
"When they stop and think about it they're so excited that people are here and raising these issues."
It's natural for issues of change and growth to come up when young people meet, said German World Youth Day participant Julia Eberwein, 21.
She and her friends are in favour of women's ordination and often talk about other ways of modernizing their church.
"We talk about why are priests not allowed to get married," Eberwein said.
"I think it's bad, not because they can't have sex but because they are alone."
World Youth Day's national director, Rev. Thomas Rosica, said he was aware of the alternative activities.
"Let me simply say this, that they are certainly entitled to have their event. .n.n. We have invited everybody to the World Youth Day. We've been very, very clear to invite everybody," Rosica said.
"We have been wrongly judged in saying that there is no opportunity for dialogue at the World Youth Day. . . . The difference (between the two events) is simply a question of joy. There's a lot of joy in this World Youth Day and I wish my friends in the other World Youth Day to experience the same kind of joy."