Pope: Child abusers filth
Details of the Pope’s meeting with survivors of abuse emerge
POPE FRANCIS last night told sex abuse survivors that priests who abuse children and those who cover up for them are nothing more than ‘filth in the toilet’, it was claimed.
The stark comments – which victims of abuse say he said to them during an hourlong meeting – were reportedly made by a visibly upset Pontiff.
Despite several attempts last night, a spokesman for the Vatican could not be contacted, and organisers of the Papal visit refused to take questions on the issue.
But two survivors in the room confirmed to the Irish Mail on Sunday that the Pontiff had said the Spanish word ‘caca’, which was translated for them as filth you’d find in a toilet.
The eight survivors in the room included campaigner Marie Collins, Clodagh Malone and Paul Redmond. Mr Redmond, the author of The Adoption Machine: The Dark History Of Ireland’s Mother And Baby Homes, aid last night: ‘I think we all got on very well with the Pope. Nobody lost their cool and everyone had a chance to tell him things I really believe he was genuinely shocked by.
‘At one point, he threw his hands in the air
‘I don’t think he had appreciated the scale’
and held his head in his hands.
‘This was when I started telling him about the thousands of children who had died in mother and baby homes and the thousands who were exposed to vaccine trials. I also told him about the 3,000 children who were exported to the US.
‘I really don’t think he appreciated the scale of what we told him in our own way.’
He added: ‘At one point he seemed to get very angry and he used the word “caca”. This was interpreted for us and we were told it means “filth”, or faeces.
‘He was referring not only to the priests who abused children but also the people who covered up for their abuse.’
Survivor Marie Collins, who quit the special Vatican commission created by the Pope to combat clerical sexual abuse, told the MoS, ‘He was referring to and agreeing with Benedict’s statement of 2005 re “filth” in the Church.
‘He did use the word “caca”. Referring I think to perpetrators and those who cover up.’
The survivors also asked him to address some of their concerns about the church’s handling of their issues at his Papal Mass later today. They asked him to assure mothers whose children were adopted – forcibly or voluntarily – that is not a mortal sin to try and find their children.
The survivors believe he will give these assurances at the Mass, and he will also assure children who were given up for adoption the same.
Survivors of mother and baby homes, from where thousands of children were ‘exported’ to childless American couples in forced adoptions, have claimed nuns warned them it was sinful to try and be reunited with their mother or children.
The Pope was alone except for his interpreter for more than double the allotted 40 minutes he had with the eight survivors of clerical and institutional abuse. The intervention came as the Pope faced criticism for missing an opportunity in his official speech in Dublin Castle to be more fortright on the issue.
Instead Leo Varadkar was praised for telling Pope Francis that the Church should have ‘zero tolerance for those who abuse innocent children’ on a day of pageantry and contrition in central Dublin. A previous intervention by Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone seemed to have a significant impact on Pope Francis – with him ad-libbing a reference to it in his speech.
Pope Francis met Ms Zappone as he paid a courtesy visit to President Michael D Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin.
At Dublin Castle Mr Varadkar said: ‘There can only be zero tolerance for those who abuse innocent children or who facilitate that abuse.’
He also said he hoped the Pontiff’s visit ‘marks the opening of a new chapter in the relationship between Ireland and the Catholic Church.’
Pope Francis said people had a right to be outraged at the ‘repugnant crimes’ committed by members of the Church against young people.
In a speech in St Patrick’s Hall at Dublin Castle yesterday the Pontiff also said of Church child sex abuse; ‘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.’
It was at this stage he spoke off script, saying: “My heart... the words of the Minister for Children are still in my heart and are still
echoing in my heart, thank you for your words.’
He then went further than he has previously on pinning blame on church figures for the coverup of clerical sex abuse.
‘The failure of ecclesiastical authorities – bishops, religious superiors, priests and others – adequately to address these repellent crimes has rightly given rise to outrage and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community. I myself share those sentiments.’
A long day for a frail and tired looking Pope Francis culminated with a music festival in front of 82,000 people at Croke Park.
The World Meeting of Families (WMOF) will continue today with a Papal visit to the Marian shrine at Knock, Co Mayo and an outdoor Mass in front of an expected congregation of half a million people in Phoenix Park.
Mr Varadkar went further in his speech than many had expected.
He said, ‘There are “dark aspects’ of the Catholic Church’s history, as one of our bishops recently said.’
Mr Varadkar continued: ‘We think of the words of the Psalm which tells us that “children are a heritage from the Lord” and we remember the way the failures of both Church and State and wider society created a bitter and broken heritage for so many, leaving a legacy of pain and suffering.
‘It is a history of sorrow and shame.
‘In place of Christian charity, forgiveness and compassion, far too often there was judgment, severity and cruelty, in particular, towards women and children and those on the margins,’ the Taoiseach said.