Pope begs forgiveness for senior clerics’ sins
The Pope has begged for forgiveness during his visit to Ireland for senior figures who have covered up Church abuse, as he was accused of ignoring allegations of paedophilia against a disgraced priest. Addressing thousands at the final Mass of his visit in Phoenix Park, Dublin, Pope Francis apologised and made an extended plea for forgiveness. “We ask forgiveness for the times that we did not show survivors compassion or the justice they deserve in the search for the truth,” he said.
THE Pope has begged for forgiveness for senior figures who have covered up Church abuse during his visit to Ireland, as he was accused of ignoring allegations of paedophilia against a disgraced priest.
Addressing a crowd at the final Mass of his visit in Phoenix Park, Dublin, Pope Francis apologised and made an extended plea for forgiveness.
“We ask forgiveness for the times that we did not show survivors compassion or the justice they deserve in the search for the truth,” he said.
“We ask forgiveness for members of the Church hierarchy who did not take care of these situations and kept quiet.”
He also mentioned the Church’s failure to take “concrete actions” to tackle abuse, a criticism that survivors have repeatedly raised this week.
But he did not suggest any specific measures during his two-day visit to Ireland, which was dominated by protests over abuse in the Church.
The events coincided with the Phoenix Park Mass, which about 250,000 attended – half the number expected.
Earlier, at the Marian shrine in Knock, Pope Francis said no one could fail to be moved by stories of young abuse victims who were “robbed of their innocence.”
He said: “This open wound challenges us to be firm and decisive in the pursuit of truth and justice. I beg the Lord’s forgiveness for these sins and for the scandal and betrayal felt by so many others in God’s family.”
His comments came after an 11-page letter was released on Saturday by a former Vatican ambassador, accusing him of covering up allegations against a cardinal of sexually abusing children.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, an ex-papal nuncio, claimed Pope Francis had lifted sanctions imposed upon former Cardinal Theodore Mccarrick by his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI. He said the measures, including forbidding him to celebrate Mass in public and requiring him to leave his seminary, had been implemented as early as 2009-10 but were lifted by Pope Francis around his election in 2013.
Mccarrick was suspended from public ministry earlier this year on the Pope’s orders after an investigation by the New York diocese found allegations of abusing a minor were “credible and substantiated”. He later resigned.
Last night Pope Francis refused to confirm or deny Mr Viganò’s claims. He said the 11-page text by the archbishop, which reads as a homophobic manifesto and an attack on the Pope’s allies in parts, “speaks for itself ” and that he wouldn’t comment on it.
Asked during an airborne press conference yesterday if Mr Viganò’s claims that he briefed the Pope in 2013 about allegations against Mccarrick were true, Francis said he had read the document and trusted journalists to judge for themselves, adding: “I won’t say a word about it.”
On Saturday the Pope met eight survivors of abuse, criminality and cruelty inflicted by members of the Church. He apparently used “caca”, a vulgar Spanish word meaning excrement, to describe those who covered up abuse.
One survivor, Marie Collins, said his responses to her questions had been “disappointing”. She told The Tablet the Pope said he saw no need for changes to the accountability process, though he admitted it should be more transparent. She was also among thousands at an event in Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance organised by Colm O’gorman, a clerical abuse survivor. The #Standfortruth rally aimed to make survivors of abuse visible during the Pope’s visit.