Pope heads to Ireland amid outrage over sex abuse
DUBLIN (AP) — Pope Francis arrives today in Ireland, ground zero of the Catholic Church’s sex abuse crisis, with the institution under fire across the globe for its systemic failures to protect children from priestly rapists or punish bishops who hid the crimes.
Francis is expected to meet with victims during his 36-hour visit to Dublin and will have “many opportunities” to speak out about abuse, the Vatican says.
But neither Francis’ words nor a new meeting with victims is likely to calm the outrage among rank-and-file Catholics in Ireland and abroad following new revelations of sexual misconduct and cover-up in the US, an ongoing crisis in Chile and prosecutions of top clerics in Australia and France.
Ireland has had one of the worst records of abuse in the world, crimes that were revealed to its 4.8 million deeply Catholic people over the past decade by a series of government-mandated inquiries. They revealed thousands of children raped and molested by priests and physically abused in church-run schools, and bishops who covered up the crimes.
After the Irish church atoned for its past and enacted tough new norms to fight abuse, it had been looking to the first visit by a pope in 40 years to show a different, more caring church that understands the problems of ordinary Catholic families today.
More than 37,000 people — most of them young Catholics — signed up to attend this week’s Vatican-sponsored World Meeting of Families in Dublin, more than twice as many as the previous edition of the family rally in Philadelphia three years ago. And many faithful are hopeful. “I see a lot of new life amongst young people who have a deep committed faith, Catholic faith,” said Sean Ascogh, a churchgoer at a recent service in Blessington southwest of Dublin.
“Obviously they are very disappointed by what has been happening in the church in the last few years, particularly the whole abuse scandals, but I think people can see beyond that,” Ascogh said.