Associated Press reports: ROME — Italian paramilitary police blocked a boulevard leading to the Vatican to prevent a march Sunday by some 100 survivors of clergy sex abuse from reaching St. Peter's Square but later allowed two protesters to approach Vatican soil they could leave letters from the abused at the Holy See's doorstep.
The pair, including one of the organizers, Gary Bergeron of Boston, were escorted by police as they carried thick, lit candles to the edge of the square. Then, after the two were told to put out the candles, Vatican security guards accompanied them to the foot of the staircase leading to the Apostolic Palace's bronze entrance doors.
There, according to Bergeron's account, the two deposited the sealed letters at the foot of the stairs, and after their passports were examined they were accompanied to the obelisk in the middle of the square. There they were allowed to leave a dozen stones, to indicate a symbolic path marker so other survivors might know they have company in their suffering.
Bergeron then went into a meeting with Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi, who earlier had beaten a hasty retreat to his office when a protester shouted "Shame, shame" in Italian.
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