Pope Ireland visit: Pontiff says he feels 'pain and shame' at failure of church to tackle child sex abuse scandals

The Pope has spoken of his “pain and shame” at the failure of church authorities to tackle what he described as the “grave scandal” of clerical sex abuse in Ireland.

On the first day of his historic visit to the country, Pope Francis acknowledged that bishops, priests and other figures in the Catholic Church had failed to adequately address the “repellent” crimes that had been inflicted on young people.

Speaking at Dublin Castle, he said: “The failure of the church authorities – bishops, religious superiors, priests and others – to adequately address these repellent crimes has quite rightly given rise to outrage and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community. I myself share those feelings.”

He added: “It is my hope that the gravity of the abuse scandal, which has cast light on the failings of many, will serve to underline the importance of minors and vulnerable adults in society.”

While Pope Francis received a warm reception from thousands of people on Saturday, his visit has sparked a number of protests over the church’s handling of various clerical abuse scandals, as well as its attitude towards women and the LGBT+ community.

One protest took place near Dublin Castle shortly after the pontiff arrived in the city on Saturday morning. It was organised by Margaret McGuckin, a survivor of historic child abuse who spent years in Nazareth House children’s home and helped campaign for the introduction of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.

Ms McGuckin said the protest was a symbolic gesture to the Pope and the church that victims have not gone away.

“The Pope now needs to stand up to the plate and do something for the survivors. We need redress, we need the church held to account,” she said.

“We want the bishops, Christian Brothers, nuns and anyone else who was involved in the abuse of children or covering up the abuse of children brought before the courts.”

Some people are also abstaining from attending events to see the pontiff in a bid to leave seats empty as a form of silent protest against the Catholic Church’s “stranglehold” on culture and government in Ireland.

It comes after the pontiff wrote a 2,000-word letter to Catholics in which he condemned the crime of sexual abuse by priests and subsequent cover-ups, and demanded accountability in response to fresh revelations in the US of decades of misconduct by clerics.

In a meeting on Saturday, Irish president Michael D Higgins told Pope Francis of the anger felt by those in Ireland who were abused as children by Catholic clerics.

A spokesman for Mr Higgins said that during the meeting, the Irish president raised with the pope the “immense suffering and hurt caused by child sex abuse perpetrated by some within the Catholic Church”.

In a statement issued after the meeting, the spokesman said: “The president welcomed the honest and forthright language that His Holiness used when addressing the issue in his recent Letter to the People of God.

“He conveyed to Pope Francis the widely held view that all would benefit from a set of actions that gave the necessary assurances to all citizens past, present and future, of all faiths and none.”

The two men also agreed on the importance of protecting vulnerable communities and individuals, and discussed issues including homelessness, health, education and nutrition.

Ireland’s foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney acknowledged that many people had mixed feelings about the visit, saying: “I think it’s been difficult for many people, for victims, for Catholics and many of the clergy.

“But I hope and expect that this weekend will be a very powerful moment. He has a personality that can reach out to Irish people.”

Archbishop Eamon Martin, the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, meanwhile said the sex abuse issue would not disappear because of Pope Francis’s visit to Ireland this weekend “and nor should it”.

“If you speak to survivors, they’re carrying a trauma and they will carry it with them for the rest of their lives. We have no right to think that we can leave it behind us,” he told Sky News.

Ireland has undergone seismic social changes since the last papal visit in 1979, when John Paul II was lauded by a nation shaped by its relationship with an all-powerful Catholic Church.