The pope provides hope on sex abuse

The pope's visit is making headlines everywhere. This is a pope I wanted to dislike but there is hope because:

1. He has done the extraordinary: He met with victims, heard their stories and experienced their pain.

2. I am overjoyed that he became immersed (willingly) in the pain of American Catholics and responded with appropriate shame as the head of our institutional church.

3. I cannot contain my support of him as he addressed his fellow bishops and their role in it as enablers who knowingly moved predators from place to place never alerting anyone of their past.

With unfiltered facts before him (no longer couched by politically astute bishops who preferred to protect the institution and their place in it while putting children in harm's way), I pray that this pope will remove these offending bishops and cardinals as a true demonstration of the justice we hear preached from the pulpit.

It's time to walk the talk. This will be his ultimate test.

Janet Hauter

South Barrington