Abuse record is a source of shame, says pope in Ireland Shame, says pope in Ireland
Pope Francis shares the outrage over the failures of church authorities to punish the “repugnant crimes” of priests who raped and molested children, he told Irish government officials yesterday.
At the start of his visit to Ireland, he was responding to a global Catholic outcry over the abuse scandal. In his speech yesterday, the pontiff told of measures by his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, to respond to the clergy abuse crisis.
But he gave no indication that he would take action to hold bishops accountable for protecting children or to sanction them when they do not.
“The failure of ecclesiastical authorities to adequately address these repugnant crimes has rightly given rise to outrage and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community,” the pope said. “I share these sentiments.”
Francis is making the first papal visit to the Roman Catholic country in four decades, but the reception he received in Dublin was a contrast to the rock star welcome given to Pope John Paul II in 1979.
No one from the public was on hand at the airport and only a handful of people cheered him outside the Vatican residence.
While hundreds of thousands are expected to turn out to see the pope, there will also be demonstrations by survivors of clergy sex abuse in a country where attitudes on the Catholic Church have shifted.
The pope’s words or a meeting with abuse victims is unlikely to calm the outrage among Catholics after revelations of sexual misconduct and cover-ups in the US, a continuing crisis in Chile and prosecutions of senior clerics in Australia and France.
Ireland has had one of the worst records of abuse in the world, crimes that were revealed to the deeply Catholic nation’s 4.8 million people
through government investigations over the past decade.
The reviews concluded that thousands of children were raped or molested by priests and abused in church-run schools while bishops covered up for the criminals.
In a country where Catholic bishops held such sway that they advised the drafters of the republic’s constitution in the 1930s, voters in recent years have turned their backs on core Catholic teachings.
They have overturned a ban on abortion and legalised divorce, contraception and same-sex marriage.
After the Irish church moved to atone for its past and enacted tough new norms to fight abuse, it views the pope’s visit as a way to highlight a more caring church that understands the problems of ordinary Catholic families today.
Irish Health Minister Simon Harris, who recently played a big part in the campaign to liberalise the country’s abortion laws, said it would be a weekend of “mixed emotions”.
Standing next to the pope, Irish premier Leo Varadkar urged him to ensure justice for abuse victims worldwide.
“Wounds are still open and there is much to be done to bring about justice and truth and healing for victims” Mr Varadkar said. “Holy Father, I ask that you use your office and influence to ensure this is done here in Ireland and across the world. We must now ensure that from words flow actions.”
But not all believe that concrete proposals are coming.
“The actions of the church do not match the words – they are totally the opposite,” Irish abuse survivor Marie Collins said.
Addressing a panel at the Vatican-sponsored World Meeting of Families, which started in Dublin on Tuesday and ends today, she called for “robust structures” and strong sanctions to hold accountable bishops and even Vatican officials who fail protect children.