USA TODAY International Edition
Pope meets sex abuse survivors in Ireland
Victims: Church hasn’t done enough to atone
Pope Francis, on the first papal visit to Ireland in almost four decades, expressed “outrage” Saturday over the Catholic Church’s cover-up of sex abuse and later met with eight survivors of what the Vatican called “clerical, religious and institutional abuse.”
Ireland is 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 or to punish bishops who hid the crimes.
“With regard to the most vulnerable, I cannot fail to acknowledge the grave scandal caused in Ireland by the abuse of young people by members of the church charged with responsibility for their protection and education,” Pope Francis said, speaking in Italian.
“The failure of ecclesiastical authorities – bishops, religious superiors, priests and others – to adequately address these repugnant crimes has rightly given rise to outrage and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community,” he said in a speech to Irish government authorities. “I myself share these sentiments.”
He did not indicate, however, whether he plans to take forceful action to hold bishops accountable for protecting children or to sanction them when they fall short.
The pope did meet later with the eight survivors, including some abused sexually and several who as infants were forcibly separated from their mothers in church-run homes for orphans.
Francis referred to the past remarks of Pope Benedict in a letter to Irish Catholics saying he “spared no words in recognizing both the gravity of the situation” and in demanding that “truly evangelical, just and effective” measures be taken in response “to this betrayal of trust.”
In their meeting with the pope, the group of survivors delivered a letter calling on the pontiff to condemn the forced separations of 100,000 mothers from their children in notorious adoption centers.
“The nuns have never taken responsibility for their willful neglect,” the letter said, according to the Irish Times. “We ask you Pope Francis to publicly call on these nuns to acknowledge their actions and issue an open and unqualified apology.”
The pope, in turn, agreed to end a Mass on Sunday by telling mothers who had given up their children for adoption that there was no sin in now looking for their children, the newspaper reported.
Upon his arrival from Rome, Pope Francis sought to get ahead of the public criticism in his opening remarks to several hundred dignitaries from Irish political, civic and religious life.
“It is my hope that the gravity of the abuse scandals, which have cast a light on the failings of many, will serve to emphasize the importance of the protection of minors and vulnerable adults on the part of society as a whole,” he said, according to a transcript published by the Irish Times.
But neither Francis’ words nor a new meeting with abuse victims is likely to calm the outrage among rank-and-file Catholics following new revelations of sexual misconduct and cover-up in the United States, an ongoing crisis in Chile, and prosecutions of top clerics in Australia and France.
Colm O’Gorman, who is leading a solidarity rally Sunday in Dublin for abuse victims, said Francis’ remarks about the shame felt by Catholics were an “insult to faithful Catholics, who have no reason to feel shame because of the crimes of the Vatican and the institutional church.”
Anne Barrett Doyle, co-founder of the online resource Bishop Accountability, said Francis “gave little comfort to heartsick victims” because he provided no details on how he would end the problem, as he alone can sanction complicit bishops.
A small group of protesters demonstrated against the pope’s visit outside Dublin Castle, with one banner reading: “Pedophile supporters go home.”
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, in remarks in Dublin Castle before the pontiff spoke, set the tone for the visit in saying the time had come to build a “new” and “more mature” relationship between the Catholic Church and the Irish state.
“Building on our intertwined history, and learning from our shared mistakes and responsibilities, it can be one in which religion is no longer at the center of our society, but one in which it continues to have an important place,” he said.
He referred to “dark aspects” of the Catholic Church’s history in Ireland, including illegal adoptions and child abuse by the clergy, as “stains on our state, our society and also the Catholic Church.”
Varadkar called the abuse “unspeakable crimes” that were perpetrated by people within the church “and then obscured to protect the institution.”
“It is a story that was all too tragically familiar to people in Ireland,” he said, according to the Times.
Addressing the church’s handling of clerical sex abuse, the prime minister said there “can only be zero tolerance for those who abuse innocent children or who facilitate the abuse.”
Ireland has had one of the worst records of abuse in the world. Crimes were revealed to the deeply Catholic nation’s 4.8 million people through a series of government-mandated inquiries over the past decade. The reviews concluded that thousands of children were raped or molested by priests and physically abused in church-run schools while bishops covered up for abusers.
“The failure of ecclesiastical authorities – bishops, religious superiors, priests and others – to adequately address these repugnant crimes has rightly given rise to outrage and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community. I myself share these sentiments.” Pope Francis