LATEST POPEMOBILE IS SKODA
POPE Francis flew in to Ireland yesterday amid a growing storm of protest over child sex abuse by clerics and decades of Vatican cover-ups.
The popular pontiff’s historic twoday visit – the first by a Pope since John Paul II in 1979 – is expected to attract 750,000 Catholics to a series of events.
But the celebrations are being overshadowed by new revelations about horrific sex assaults by priests on innocent youngsters around the world.
Yesterday the Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, publicly challenged Francis to acknowledge the church’s “history of sorrow and shame”.
He asked the Holy Father to use his influence to ensure justice and healing for survivors of “brutal crimes perpetrated within the Catholic Church and then obscured to protect the institution at the expense of innocent victims.”
In the unprecedented speech at Dublin Castle, Mr Varadkar, 39, told the Pope: “There can only be zero tolerance for those who abuse innocent children or who facilitate that abuse.
“We must now ensure that from words flow actions.
“Above all, Holy Father, I ask to you to listen to the victims.”
But survivors of the abuse were bitterly disappointed when the Pope’s own speech failed to acknowledge the Vatican’s sins – or lay out real reforms to stop abusers.
Francis, 81, said only: “I cannot fail to acknowledge the great scandal caused in Ireland by the abuse of young people by members of the church charged with responsibility for their protection and education.
“The failure of ecclesiastical authorities – bishops, religious superiors, priests and others – adequately to address these repellent crimes has rightfully given rise to outrage and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community. I myself share those sentiments.”
He hoped the scandal would “emphasise the importance of the protection of minors and vulnerable adults on the part of society as a whole”.
Last night Amnesty International Ireland boss Colm O’gorman, who was abused by a priest at the age of 13, slammed the speech as “a shameful deflection of responsibility on behalf of the Pope and an insult to faithful THE Pope was driven from Dublin airport to meet the Irish President yesterday morning in a blue Skoda Rapid Spaceback.
The car retails for £14,000 to £20,000 and the Czech firm this week unveiled a special stained-glass car to mark Francis’s visit to Ireland. It was unveiled at the World Meeting of Families event, which started in Dublin on Wednesday. The project involved embedding more than 1,700 pieces of handcut glass in 25 metres of lead. When the Pope’s visit to Ireland is over, the cars will go to a charity nominated by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, in line with the pontiff’s wishes.