All you have to do is read the lead in the Boston Globe’s exclusive to realize this is a Big Deal:

Pope Benedict XVI, in a dramatic move likely to alter forever the image of his pontificate, met this afternoon with five victims of clergy sexual abuse from Boston.

But wait, there’s much more:

The private meeting, which was first reported by the Globe this afternoon and has since been confirmed by the Vatican, was brokered by Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston.

The meeting took place at the papal nunciature, which is the home of the pope’s ambassador to the United States. The meeting did not appear on the pope’s schedule, but took place during the window between a Mass this morning at Nationals Park and a talk that he is to deliver later this afternoon to Catholic educators gathered at Catholic University of America.

A papal spokesman told the Associated Press that O’Malley presented the pontiff with a notebook listing the names of more than one thousand abuse victims from the Boston archdiocese.

The meeting between a pope and abuse victims is a huge development in the clergy sexual abuse crisis that has roiled the Catholic Church since 2002, when the Globe started publishing a series of stories about abuse by priests. The pope at the time, John Paul II, did not visit the United States after the crisis broke — he traveled to Canada and Mexico but flew over the United States without stopping in 2002 — and neither he nor Benedict is known to have met with abuse survivors prior to today, despite repeated requests from victims.

O’Malley facilitated the visit with victims after the pope declined his repeated entreaties to visit Boston. O’Malley had argued that the pope could best directly address the abuse issue in Boston, viewed by many as the epicenter of the crisis, but the Vatican cited the pope’s age and health in deciding to limit his travels to New York, which is the home of the United Nations, and Washington, which is the seat of the US government.

In an interview with the Globe last Friday, O’Malley said a papal visit with victims “is really his call.’’

“I am convinced that he is very aware of the needs of our country and certainly wants to be helpful to the church in the United States by his visit,’’ O’Malley said.

Asked again last night about the prospects for a papal visit with victims, O’Malley said, cryptically, “nothing has been announced.’’

But in the Friday interview, O’Malley said he has found meeting with victims to be very helpful.

“I think it has been very positive, in helping to understand the serious damage that is occasioned by child abuse,’’ he said. “I think in the past, people were not aware of the long-range effects. And, certainly, if you have the opportunity to meet with survivors, it becomes very apparent that this kind of tragic activity in their childhood often marks a person for life and is a source of great distress.’’

O’Malley also said meetings with victims can help some reconnect with their Catholic faith.

“It also, I think, has given me an opportunity to try and reach out to survivors and to help them to realize that in the Catholic Church we have a great sorrow for what happened to them,’’ he said. “And many of the survivors themselves, in my experience, are looking for a way to reconnect with the church. Some have walked away from the church, but others have a real desire to have a relationship with the church.”

The victims – including men and women, all of them abused as minors by priests in the Boston area – met with the 81-year-old pontiff at the papal nunciature, which is the Vatican’s Embassy here, for about a half hour. They were accompanied by O’Malley.

None of the participants could immediately be reached for comment.

There’s more at the Globe link, including some dissatisfied reaction from SNAP. But it’s well worth reading.

And the New York Times adds these details:

The pope himself had requested the meeting, said the official, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, which took place at the papal nuncio’s residence. The pope prayed and spoke personally with each of them, in a meeting that lasted about 25 minutes. Some wept, Father Lombardi said.

The victims at the meeting were not immediately available for comment, but three were interviewed on CNN later in the night. “He congratulated me on my upcoming wedding,” said Faith Johnston, who said that the pope had read a summary of their lives before meeting them. She said she cried during the meeting.

It was absolutely emotional,” Olan Horne, another victim, told CNN.

“It was a moving experience,” said Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, who organized and attended the meeting, speaking to reporters afterward. “It was very positive and very prayerful.”

The meeting made clear that for all the messages that Benedict wished to send during his five-day trip to the United States, his first as pope, the one concerning priestly abuse was most central. He raised the issue first with reporters on his trip from Rome on Tuesday, and did so for a third time Thursday morning during a huge open mass at Nationals Stadium before nearly 50,000 people, his first major encounter with America’s diverse church.

“No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse,” the pope said in his homily. “It is important that those who have suffered be given loving pastoral attention.”

Cardinal O’Malley is to be commended. And strongly. This is an important moment for the American Church — and, clearly, for this papacy, too.