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LONDON — Wearing the dress she wore to her first communion and hands held together as if in prayer, the eight-year-old Therese Albrecht looks like a poster child for the Catholic Church.
The caption, which she added as an adult after years of depression, suicidal thoughts and psychiatric treatment, tells a different story: "Raped at age eight."
Albrecht traveled more than 3,700 miles from her home in Chicago with three other Americans — who all say they were abused by priests — to hold a silent demonstration. They allowed the childhood photographs of themselves and other victims to make their case.
Speaking from the Scottish capital's Princes Street as they waited for the pope to pass by, Albrecht told msnbc.com that she was sexually abused by a priest from the age of eight to 11 and also by a nun.
"I hope he takes notice of all the posters of all these innocent children in the prime of their youth ... basically their soul was murdered," she said. "Some of the posters of the children ... they committed suicide as adults. As someone who was suicidal herself, that touches me deeply."
"Yes, it smells like Comet cleanser and tastes salty and slimy, my child, but it is the seed of our Church and, through Christ, you will learn to love it."
