In Ireland, Pope Francis Finds a Country Transformed and a Church in Tatters [NYTimes]

In Ireland, Pope Francis Finds a Country Transformed and a Church in Tatters



By Jason Horowitz
Aug. 25, 2018

DUBLIN — Nearly 40 years since the last papal visit to Ireland, Pope Francis arrived on Saturday to a transformed country where the once-mighty Roman Catholic Church is in tatters — its authority eroded by deepening secularization and a global sex abuse crisis challenging Francis’ papacy.

[Follow our live updates of the papal visit to Ireland.]

With recent revelations of institutional cover-ups of sexual abuse in the United States and Chile, many Catholics had hoped that Francis, who has struggled throughout his tenure to grasp the enormity of the scourge, would use the wreckage of the Irish church as a backdrop to announce muscular new measures to protect children in his church.

Instead, on the first day of his two-day visit here for the ninth World Meeting of Families event, he offered a familiar account of his disgust at the sins of priests and bishops, disappointing advocates of abuse survivors who found his remarks too tepid and disconnected from concrete plans to take action.

“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,” Francis said at Dublin Castle. There, he met with Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who called on Francis to use his “office and influence” to safeguard children in Ireland and around the world.

“The failure of ecclesiastical authorities — bishops, religious superiors, priests and others — adequately to address these repugnant crimes has rightly given rise to outrage, and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community,” the pope added. “I myself share those sentiments.”

As recently as a few weeks ago, the pope’s visit to Ireland mostly promised an awkward encounter in an estranged relationship. Since the last papal visit — by John Paul II in 1979 — Ireland, once a cornerstone of the church, has abandoned its teachings by legalizing divorce and gay marriage. The prime minister is gay, and just a few months ago, Ireland voted to lift a banon abortion.


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