Irish sex victims to protest at Pope’s visit
POPE FRANCIS will be met with protests by victims of clerical sex abuse when he visits Ireland in the summer, campaigners have warned.
The Vatican announced yesterday that the Pope would travel to the Republic of Ireland in August for the World Meeting of Families, a Catholic celebration of marriage and family life.
The Catholic Church has been badly damaged by scandals over priests sexually abusing children, and Pope Francis has been accused of failing to grasp the gravity of the problem. “There will certainly be protests and complaints,” Marie Collins, a high-profile victim of clerical sex abuse, told The Telegraph.
She was a member of a Vatican commission created by Pope Francis to find ways of halting the sexual abuse of children and minors by priests, but resigned a year ago over the body’s failure to enact any concrete measures.
“The Pope has said all the right things, he’s talked about zero tolerance, but when it comes to action, he hasn’t done anything,” said Mrs Collins, who was molested by a hospital chaplain when she was 13.
It will be the first papal visit to Ireland since that of Pope John Paul II in 1979. But Ireland is now a very different country: the Church’s reputation has been compromised by sex abuse scandals, divorce was legalised in a referendum in 1995, and in 2015 Ireland became the first nation in the world to make same-sex marriage legal. A referendum on abortion will be held in May.
“The number of people attending Mass is down, we have ageing priests, the seminaries are struggling and religious orders are closing down,” said Mrs Collins.
The 81-year-old pontiff will arrive in Dublin on Aug 25 and will celebrate Mass the next day at Phoenix Park.