Pope Francis has said he is ashamed of the Catholic Church’s failure to adequately address the “repellent crimes” 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 abuse survivors later on Saturday.
The papal visit, the first to the Irish Republic for 39 years, coincides with the World Meeting of Families.
It is a global Catholic gathering held every three years.
“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,” the Pope told political leaders and dignitaries at Dublin Castle.
“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,” he said.
“I myself share those sentiments.”
Earlier this week, in a letter to the world’s 1.2bn Roman Catholics, the Pope condemned the “atrocities” of child abuse and clerical cover-ups.
He was speaking after Mr Varadkar said the failures of the Church, the state and wider society had created a “bitter and broken heritage for so many, leaving a legacy of pain and suffering”.
“Magdalene 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,” he said.
“People kept in dark corners, behind closed doors, cries for help that went unheard.
“Above all, Holy Father, I ask to you to listen to the victims and survivors.”
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.
Flowers and vestments
The Pope’s visit will end with a Mass for 500,000 people at Phoenix Park on Sunday.
Having been presented with flowers and vestments by children after his aeroplane Shepherd One touched down at Dublin Airport, Pope Francis travelled to Áras an Uachtaráin, the Irish president’s residence, where he was welcomed by President Michael D Higgins, his wife Sabina and a military guard of honour.
The Ireland that he is visiting is a different country to that which greeted Pope John Paul II in 1979.
Since the Polish pope’s visit, there have been huge changes in public attitudes to social issues including abortion, contraception, divorce and same-sex marriage.
The country voted for constitutional change on gay marriage in 2015 and voted overwhelmingly to overturn its strict abortion law in May.
The Pope heard Mr Varadkar, a gay man, speak out against the traditional Catholic teaching on the family.
He said that the Republic of Ireland had modernised its laws, “understanding that marriages do not always work, that women should make their own decisions and that families come in many forms” – including those headed by a lone parent, same-sex parents or parents who are divorced and remarried.
The Irish Catholic Church has been engulfed in scandal with the uncovering of widespread clerical sexual abuse of children and cover-ups.
Child sex abuse scandals continue to embroil the Church around the globe.
Source: BBC
