Pope Francis tells missionaries to talk to abuse survivors

The group of abuse survivors group outside the Vatican before the Papal meeting

A victim of child sexual abuse at a priest training school has said meeting the Pope was a "healing" experience.

Mark Murray was among eight abuse survivors granted a private meeting with Pope Francis on Monday.

They said the Pope now intends to ask the order that ran St Peter Claver College in west Yorkshire in the 1960s and 70s to engage with the group.

Mr Murray, from St Asaph, Denbighshire, said he came away from the Vatican meeting with renewed hope.

He endured repeated abuse by a priest at the former junior seminary between 1969, when he joined aged 13, and 1974.

Mr Murray, now 66, had said before the meeting that he just wanted the Pope to listen.

'Extremely attentive'

Afterwards he added: "It was such a healing and transformative meeting.

"He was extremely attentive to what we were saying.

"I come away with hope; hope that things can carry on changing in the church and that safeguarding can carry on changing."

Mark Murray was one of 11 men who settled out of court for alleged abuse in the 1960s and 70s

Mr Murray was one of 11 former trainee priests who shared a £120,000 settlement from The Verona Fathers, a Roman Catholic mission now known as Comboni Missionaries, over abuse suffered in the 1960s and 70s.

The men have also received an apology from the Bishop of Leeds, but have now shared their testimonies with Pope Francis after the body responsible for dealing with child sexual abuse in the Church helped set up the meeting.

• They came 5,000 miles - to ask Pope to say sorry

• Cardinal 'protected Church ahead of victims'

• Priest's 'harasser' will not face trial

"I don't think we could have expected a better outcome," said Bede Mullen, of the Comboni Survivors Group.

"He [the Pope] said he's immediately going to ring the superior general of the Comboni Missionaries personally and get him to engage with the survivors' group."

Pope Francis heard testimonies from seven victims of sexual abuse at a Catholic church priest training school

Years of psychotherapy

Among the stories the pope listened to was that of father-of-two Mr Murray.

He said he couldn't talk about his ordeal for more than 20 years before he began civil action in 1995 to fight for an acknowledgment of what happened to him from the order which ran the seminary.

Ahead of the meeting he said: "I don't want an apology. A forced apology isn't a true one. I want them to listen.

"My statement will come from a more personal aspect - what their treatment has done to me as a person and to my family.

"I dealt with the abuse I suffered as a child through years of psychotherapy. It's much harder to deal with the response of some of the institutions towards me."

Bede Mullen (left) and Mark Murray (right) were two boys abused at St Peter Claver College

"Where I'm coming from is the impact of the Combonis having no engagement with us." Mr Murray added.

"They know what happened - but there's never been an admission that abuse took place.

"This should've been sorted decades ago. If the Comboni Order had listened with their hearts in 1995 this could have been sorted," he said.

"We didn't want what happened to us happening to other people, so you push for a meeting with the highest person in the Catholic Church."

The abuse took place in the 1960s and 70s before St Peter Claver College in Mirfield was shut in 1984

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales whose leadership has been criticised in the child sexual abuse scandal, also attended Monday's meeting with the Pope.

'Sorry for the pain and trauma'

The Bishop of Leeds, Marcus Stock, in whose diocese the college in Mirfield was situated, will also be at the meeting after he offered the victims a "heartfelt and unreserved apology" last year.

The Right Reverend Stock said sorry for the "pain and trauma experienced when you were students at Mirfield and for the spiritual suffering and emotional distress which continues to affect you to this day".

Members of the Comboni Survivors' Group say they still want justice from the Order.

The congregation, now known as the Comboni Missionaries, was founded in 1867 by Daniele Comboni and is a Catholic clerical male religious group.

The Bishop of Leeds said the Pope was aware the men had not had an "adequate pastoral response" from the leadership of the Comboni Order

They have "publicly apologised for any abuse suffered by former seminarians" and acknowledge the harm caused by child abuse.

"It was with great sadness and regret that we learned about the allegations of non-recent abuse relating to our former junior seminary which closed in 1984," said a Comboni Missionaries spokesperson.

"We have worked hard to respond with seriousness and sensitivity to the complaints and claims made, have fully supported and cooperated with the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse - and are working with a respected specialist charity to provide counselling and facilitate meetings."

The Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA) has said they will do "everything in their power" to help with "any issue of Church-related abuse and suffering".

"We are acutely aware of the survivors' concerns and we are actively engaged with them and with representatives of the Order to bring them together to address these concerns," said CSSA chairman Nazir Afzal.

• If you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, the BBC Action Line has links to organisations which can offer support and advice