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Pope Francis has said he is ashamed of the Catholic Church\u2019s failure to adequately address the \u201crepellent crimes\u201d of sex abuse by clergy.<\/p>\n
The Irish prime minister earlier delivered a strong warning to the Pope to take action against clergy involved in child abuse and keeping it secret.<\/p>\n
The Pope is expected to meet abuse survivors later on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The papal visit, the first to the Irish Republic for 39 years, coincides with the World Meeting of Families.<\/p>\n
It is a global Catholic gathering\u00a0held every three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d the Pope told political leaders and dignitaries at Dublin Castle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe failure of ecclesiastical authorities \u2013 bishops, religious superiors, priests and others \u2013 adequately to address these repellent crimes has rightly given rise to outrage, and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI myself share those sentiments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, in a letter to the world\u2019s 1.2bn Roman Catholics, the Pope condemned the\u00a0\u201catrocities\u201d of child abuse and clerical cover-ups.<\/p>\n He was speaking after Mr Varadkar said the failures of the Church, the state and wider society had created a \u201cbitter and broken heritage for so many, leaving a legacy of pain and suffering\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cMagdalene Laundries, mother and baby homes, industrial schools, illegal adoptions and clerical child abuse are stains on our state, our society and also the Catholic Church,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople kept in dark corners, behind closed doors, cries for help that went unheard.<\/p>\n \u201cAbove all, Holy Father, I ask to you to listen to the victims and survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Varadkar said there could be zero tolerance for those who abuse children or who facilitate that abuse and that from words action must flow.<\/p>\n Flowers and vestments<\/strong><\/p>\n The Pope\u2019s visit will end with a Mass for 500,000 people at Phoenix Park on Sunday.<\/p>\n Having been presented with flowers and vestments by children after his aeroplane Shepherd One touched down at Dublin Airport, Pope Francis travelled to \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in, the Irish president\u2019s residence, where he was welcomed by President Michael D Higgins, his wife Sabina and a military guard of honour.<\/p>\n The Ireland that he is visiting is a different country to that which\u00a0greeted Pope John Paul II in 1979.<\/p>\n Since the Polish pope\u2019s visit, there have been huge changes in public attitudes to social issues including abortion, contraception, divorce and same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n The country\u00a0voted for constitutional change on gay marriage in 2015\u00a0and\u00a0voted overwhelmingly to overturn its strict abortion law in May.<\/p>\n The Pope heard Mr Varadkar, a gay man, speak out against the traditional Catholic teaching on the family.<\/p>\n He said that the Republic of Ireland had modernised its laws, \u201cunderstanding that marriages do not always work, that women should make their own decisions and that families come in many forms\u201d \u2013 including those headed by a lone parent, same-sex parents or parents who are divorced and remarried.<\/p>\n The Irish Catholic Church has been engulfed in scandal with the uncovering of widespread clerical sexual abuse of children and cover-ups.<\/p>\n Child sex abuse scandals\u00a0continue to embroil the Church around the globe. On Friday, Mr Varadkar said he hoped the Pope\u2019s visit\u00a0would mark the beginning of a new chapter in Ireland\u2019s relationship with the Church, which he said had held \u201ctoo much of a dominant place in our society\u201d.<\/p>\n Moral authority ravaged<\/p>\n By Martin Bashir, BBC religion editor<\/strong><\/p>\n Back in the 1970s, almost 90% of Irish Catholics would attend weekly Mass. Divorce, abortion and contraception were against the law.<\/p>\n Since then, religious faith and attendance at Mass have been diminished from within: scandal upon scandal has ravaged the Church\u2019s moral authority.<\/p>\n The biggest challenge for the Church in Ireland is not the power of secularism, from without, but the task of establishing moral integrity and moral accountability, from within.<\/p>\n The Vatican said\u00a0the meeting with sex-abuse survivors would not be announced until after it was over, and that it would be up to victims if they wanted to speak afterwards.<\/p>\n On Saturday evening, the Pope will attend the Festival of Families concert in Dublin\u2019s Croke Park stadium.<\/p>\n More than 70,000 people are expected to take part, with the world-renowned tenor Andrea Bocelli due to perform.<\/p>\n Other acts on the bill include Nathan Carter, Daniel O\u2019Donnell, Moya Brennan, the Begley Family and the Priests.<\/p>\n The pontiff will travel to County Mayo on Sunday morning for a visit to Knock Shrine.<\/p>\n He will return to Dublin for an afternoon Mass in front of an estimated 500,000 people in Phoenix Park, to close the World Meeting of Families.<\/p>\n Papal visit to Ireland: Itinerary highlights<\/p>\n Saturday 25 August<\/strong><\/p>\n Sunday 26 August<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pope Francis has said he is ashamed of the Catholic Church\u2019s failure to adequately address the \u201crepellent crimes\u201d of sex abuse by clergy. The Irish prime minister earlier delivered a strong warning to the Pope to take action against clergy involved in child abuse and keeping it secret. The Pope is expected to meet abuse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Pope\"](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/86C0\/production\/_103169443_poepreuters.jpg\")
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