Pope Francis holds his first meeting with victims of sexual abuse by priests on Monday, an encounter that some say should have happened long ago, while victims from his native Argentina say they are pained to have been excluded.  Six victims, two each from Ireland, Britain and Germany, will attend the pope's private morning mass in his Vatican residence and then meet him afterwards, according to people who organised the meeting.  Francis has said he would show zero tolerance for anyone in the Catholic church who abused children, including bishops, and compared sexual abuse of children by priests to a "satanic mass".  But he has come under fire from victims groups for saying in an interview this year that the Catholic church had done more than any other organisation to root out paedophiles in its ranks.  Why the pope waited nearly 16 months since his election in March 2013 to meet sexual abuse victims is not clear, particularly as his predecessor, former Pope Benedict, met them several times during trips outside Italy.  "I think its very important that the pope meet with victims," said Anne Doyle of Bishops Accountability, a US-based documentation centre on abuse in the Catholic church.  "We know that this pope is capable of compassion and his refusal to meet with sexual abuse victims so far has been inconsistent with the mercy he has shown with so many marginalised. This is something that he had to rectify," she said.  Victims groups have said the pope had a spotty record of dealing with abuse cases in Argentina when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, and victims from that country wrote to ask him why they were not invited. "This fact pains us," four victims of sexual abuse by priests said in a letter sent to the pope and made available to Reuters.  "You must know the things that happen here and why the victims have been fighting for so many years, as well as the new cases that are surfacing," said the letter, signed by four victims.  Doyle said the pope should quickly follow up with "several core actions" to show the meeting was not merely ceremonial.  "He definitely must explicitly tell his bishops that all Church officials must report crimes and suspected crimes to civil authorities," she said.  The Vatican says 3,420 credible accusations of sexual abuse by priests have been referred to it in the past 10 years and 824 clerics defrocked. The church in the United States has paid $2.5bn in compensation to victims.  The commission advising the pope on the sexual abuse crisis, which includes Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley, met on Sunday and is expected to announce on Monday that it will expand its ranks to include more members from the developing world.
Victims groups are unconvinced by the pope's record on abuse, and the length of time he has taken to arrange a meeting