Collective plea for forgiveness by the Pope could help bring closure to the victims of clerical abuse
The 2011 visit to the Republic by the Queen has gone down in the history books as a triumph. Truth be told, the trip was historic even before she set foot on Irish soil, suitably bedecked in emerald green. The arrival of Pope Francis in Dublin in less than four months’ time is also historic, since it is only the second time in the 2,000-year history of the papacy that a Pope has visited Ireland.
While there is clearly not the historic enmity between Rome and Dublin that has marked relations between Britain and Ireland down the centuries, recent decades have put a considerable strain on that relationship and many Irish people have felt betrayed by a Church they once revered.
How Pope Francis navigates that strain and addresses the appalling crimes of clerical sexual abuse will be crucial in whether or not these wounds can be healed.
For most people, the high point of the Queen’s visit was the laying of the wreath and the gentle bow of the head at the Garden of Remembrance, as she acknowledged those who had fought to end British rule in Ireland.
It was a huge gesture, but her apology at Dublin Castle for Britain’s misdeeds in Ireland was, surely, infinitely more important.
The Queen noted that “with the benefit of historical hindsight, we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently, or not at all”. Nonetheless, it was enough for most people to draw a line in the sand and it was deemed by the media that the Queen had
gone far enough. Rather than interview victims of British atrocities for their reaction, the microphones instead were turned on politicians and commentators, who universally welcomed her remarks.
Pope Francis will have to tread carefully while in Ireland. And while he is personally popular, hostility towards the Church remains intense and he is unlikely to be given the benefit of the doubt in the media
in the same way that the Queen was.
Francis will certainly meet privately with survivors of clerical abuse while in Ireland.
He has done so already and today he will meet with survi-
vors from Chile in what is set to be a tense encounter.
The Vatican has said that the Pope will seek forgiveness from the Chilean victims, not just for the abuse they suffered, but also the cover-up by the Church and the appalling moment in January when Francis himself effectively called them liars (he later said he had been misinformed).
In Dublin, Francis will have to listen to the survivors of abuse as they recount their experiences, but he will also have to hear the often-unreported detail of the spiritual devastation they have suffered.
But meeting victims is only one piece in the jigsaw. On a wider level, the Pope should speak to the wider sense of betrayal that is felt. As Protestantism spread throughout Europe, the Reformation was an epic failure in Ireland and Catholicism survived centuries of persecution.
That faith was worn with huge pride.
It’s sobering to recall that, in 2011, Pope Benedict XVI observed that the cover-up of abuse by priests and religious did more to obscure the light of the Gospel than centuries of persecution.
The Pope will be lucky to have by his side in Ireland Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin. Dr Martin has excelled in his outreach to those who have suffered in Church-run institutions. Francis deserves a fair hearing in Ireland — for some, perhaps for many, whatever he says will not be enough to ease their pain and lighten their burdens. But we should recognise in him a humble pastor trying to do his best to right the wrongs of the past.
A collective plea for forgiveness from the Pope would help heal the gaping wound in Irish society left by the Church’s failures. If a few words in Dublin Castle can heal 800 years of bitterness, the Pope at the very least deserves the same goodwill afforded the Queen.