In the first papal visit to Ireland in 39 years, intended as a celebration of the family, Pope Francis acknowledged “the grave scandal caused in Ireland by the abuse of young people by members of the church,” which has eroded the moral authority and unity of the Roman Catholic Church.
Amid unrelenting revelations of sexual abuse and cover-ups, the pope has struggled to satisfy enraged survivors of abuse by clergy, who have accused him of failing to speak or act forcefully enough to expose and punish wrongdoing. Though he is in Ireland for a celebration of the family, his every public utterance will be parsed for how he addresses the scandals.
Francis, who last week lamented “we showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them,” will meet with abuse survivors in Ireland, the Vatican has said, but there was no mention of the topic in his official public schedule for the trip, originally designed as a celebration of families.
No nation has been hit harder by the church’s scandals than Ireland, once a citadel of conservative Catholicism where church and state were closely entwined for generations, and perhaps none has moved more sharply away from church teachings.
• In the first speech of his two-day visit, the pope addressed the abuse scandals and the refugee crisis, along with two decades of peace in Ireland and an issue he often avoids discussing: abortion.
• Prime Minister Leo Varadkar of Ireland, speaking with the pope just a few feet away, urged Francis to take action on the “history of sorrow and shame.”
• Not everyone is pleased with the pope and his visit to Dublin for the World Meeting of Families: Some people have signed up for tickets to his appearances and plan not to use them, and others are unhappy with his relatively lenient views.
• The New York Times will have live coverage from Ireland throughout the pope’s two-day visit.
The pope decries sexual abuse of children, abortion and the refugee crisis
In the first speech of his visit, the pope acknowledged “the abuse of young people by members of the church” and the church’s failure to “address these repugnant crimes.”
He gave no hint of the kind of new measures that victims have demanded in response to the scandals, and praised the steps taken by his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, to prevent the abuses from being repeated. Many abuse survivors have described the church’s actions as inadequate.
But sexual abuse was not the main focus of his speech at Dublin Castle, where he spoke, among other things, of the peace that has taken hold on the island since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 ended decades of sectarian fighting. He also addressed abortion, another source of friction between the Irish and the church.
Conservative Catholics have accused Francis of failing to pay enough attention to the rights of the unborn. Unlike his predecessors, he has preferred to avoid culture-war issues like abortion and gay rights, instead emphasizing care for the poor, the marginalized and migrants.
But at an event explicitly intended to spotlight the importance of families, held in the wake of the vote in May to lift a constitutional ban against abortion, Francis had little choice but to broach the subject, though he paired it with concern for refugees.
“Could it be that the growth of a materialistic ‘throwaway culture’ has in fact made us increasingly indifferent to the poor and to the most defenseless members of our human family, including the unborn, deprived of the very right to life?” he said.
“Perhaps the most disturbing challenge to our consciences in these days is the massive refugee crisis, which will not go away, and whose solution calls for a wisdom, a breadth of vision and a humanitarian concern that go far beyond short-term political decisions.”
— Jason Horowitz
The prime minister calls on the pope to act on abuse
Prime Minister Leo Varadkar addressed the scandals head-on in his own speech at Dublin Castle, joining abuse survivors in urging the pope, who sat a few feet away, to take action on the “history of sorrow and shame,” rather than merely express regret and sadness.
“We remember the failures of both church and state and wider society and how they created a bitter and broken heritage for so many, leaving a legacy of pain and suffering,” the prime minister said, speaking to a diverse audience. “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.”
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He specifically cited the institutions — “Magdalene laundries, mother and baby homes, industrial schools” — where the church, with the government’s blessing, housed poor people in harsh conditions, put them to work without pay and coerced women to give up their children for adoption.
“Wounds are still open and there is much to be done to bring about justice and truth and healing for victims and survivors,” he said. “Holy Father, we ask that you use your office and influence to ensure this is done here in Ireland and across the world.”
— Jason Horowitz
Abuse survivors are demanding a ‘zero tolerance’ policy
A group representing survivors of clerical sexual abuse around the world issued a list of demands to Francis on Friday, including a “zero tolerance” church law, meaning that priests who molested children and superiors who protected abusers would be defrocked.
Ending Clerical Abuse, which has identified victims from over 172 countries worldwide, also called on the church to publicly identify abusive clerics, and to prosecute complicit bishops in church tribunals.
“We need to know who these sex offenders are, just like we need to know who these bishops are, because you know who they are, and you know what they’ve done,” Peter Isely, a survivor from Milwaukee and a founding member of the group, said at a news conference.
The demands followed reports that Cardinal Sean O’Malley, whom Francis had appointed to head a commission to address the crisis, had ignored word of sexual abuse accusations against Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, archbishop of Washington. Cardinal O’Malley withdrew from the World Families’ Meeting.
— Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura
“Maybe this country could lead the way” in church reform, a Dubliner says
Tony Kelly, 58, a bar manager in Dublin, watched the pope’s Dublin Castle speech on television and found his apology sincere, but, he said, “people are looking more for actions rather than words.”
The Irish church had suffered the consequences of “living in the past” and breaking its trust with the faithful, said Mr. Kelly.
“There was a lot of negativity, a lot of cover up, and they tended to protect themselves,” he said, while waiting outside St. Mary’s Church, which has long been the acting cathedral of the archdiocese and where Pope Francis was to dispense advise to young couples.
But Mr. Kelly said that he hoped that what the pope heard in Ireland would motivate him to help protect children in other churches around the world.
“Maybe this country could lead the way in certain respects,” he said.
The pope fondly recalls a long-ago visit to Ireland
“It touches my heart to return to Ireland after 38 years,” Francis told reporters aboard his plane, before landing in Dublin. “I was here for nearly three months to practice English in 1980. And for me, this is a great memory.”
Before he became Pope Francis, the Argentine priest known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio stayed at a Jesuit residence in the Milltown Park neighborhood of Dublin. Today, a photo of him as pope, grinning and wearing the Ring of the Fisherman on his raised right hand, decorates the main corridor of the residence.
He did not mix much, listening to English-language tapes he had bought and taking a few one-on-one lessons, but he still made an impression, said Michael O’Sullivan, a fellow Jesuit who met him then.
“He had a terrific presence when he looked at you; he focused on you, listened to you. He was just very present,” said Father O’Sullivan, 66, now the director of the Spirituality Institute for Research and Education in Milltown Park.
— Iliana Magra and Jason Horowitz
Ireland has changed, but so has the papacy
It would be hard to overstate how much Ireland has changed since Pope John Paul II visited in 1979. Church attendance and influence have fallen, the country has a gay prime minister, the people voted overwhelmingly this year to legalize abortion, and in the last four decades, divorce, contraception and same-sex marriage have all become legal.
This is also a very different pope, navigating a different world.
John Paul II, the first non-Italian pontiff in four and a half centuries, rode a historic wave of popularity and became a global symbol of resistance to communism during the Cold War, and in Dublin he drew what was called the largest crowd in Irish history. Vigorous and young by papal standards, at 59, he visited several countries on three continents that year, his first full year leading the church.
He did not stray far from church doctrine, reiterating during his Irish trip the church’s opposition to abortion, contraception and divorce.
— Elisabetta Povoledo
On Dublin’s streets, reaction to the pope is muted
Apart from a few steel barriers and clusters of police officers on the streets, it was hard to tell on this chilly Saturday morning, just before Pope Francis arrived, that anything special was happening in Dublin.
A few hours later, as the pope rode through the city, standing in the back of a pickup truck, the crowds he waved to were sparse.
“It’s not really a thing that would be on my radar,” said Eoin O’Connell, 21, during his shift at an Irish memorabilia store off Grafton street, a tourist shopping haven. Vatican flags waved outside the store, but Mr. O’Connell said sales have been low, as has interest in the papal visit.
Less than 200 yards away, a dozen people gathered to quietly protest the visit. “I can’t help feeling that him coming here is a tremendous disrespect to those who have suffered,” said Michael Shimaokaa, 27.
A street vendor reorganized his stock of umbrellas, scarves, sweaters and hats, putting Pope Francis T-shirts up front, but tourists still went for the woolen beanies and caps.
“He should have gone to Western Ireland, where it would have been a big deal,” said Sian O’Sullivan, 36, on her way to get her make-up done, “but Dublin is atheist.”
— Iliana Magra
Despite hopes, the pope will not visit Northern Ireland
When the Vatican announced that Pope Francis would visit Ireland, anticipation grew among Catholics in Northern Ireland that Francis, unlike Pope John Paul II, would find time to cross the border. There was even Vatican gossip that Francis might meet the queen.
The sectarian violence of the Troubles, which in part kept John Paul away, has all but vanished. Relations between Ireland and Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, have improved so much that people dread the possibility that a hard border will be re-established as a result of Britain’s plan to exit the European Union.
Even so, there is no visit to Northern Ireland on the pope’s packed 36-hour schedule. As is customary on papal flights, he sent electronic greetings to the leaders of the nations over which his plane flew, including to Queen Elizabeth II.
“I extend cordial greetings to your majesty, the members of the royal family, and the people of the United Kingdom as I fly over British airspace on my way to Ireland. I willingly invoke upon all of you the abundant blessings of almighty God,” Francis wrote, signing with his formal “Franciscus PP.”
— Jason Horowitz
Protest strategy: Keep pope’s crowds small
Some critics of Pope Francis couldn’t wait to apply for tickets for his appearances in Ireland — and then not use them.
A protest called “Say Nope to the Pope” encouraged critics of the church to snap up free tickets and then skip the events.
It has gained more than 10,000 supporters on its Facebook page, and has been much discussed on radio, in the papers and on the streets. One protester claimed to have reserved more than 1,000 tickets under various assumed names, including Jesus Christ.
There are plenty of Irish Catholics with grievances against the church — survivors of abuse by priests, women who were forced to give up children for adoption or bury them under mother-and-baby homes, poor people who had no choice but to work without pay in church-run facilities.
And then there are the many Irish who have rebelled against the church and its sway over government policy, or have just drifted away from the faith.
But even some of the critics of Pope Francis and his church find the “Say Nope” protest in bad taste. Mr. Varadkar called the protest “petty and meanspirited.”
— Jason Horowitz
In a sign of change, the church held a talk on L.G.B.T. Catholics
One event at the gathering prompted controversy long before it took place: A presentation on the church “showing welcome and respect” to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, by the Rev. James Martin, who published a book on the topic last year.
Conservative protesters have gathered at his public readings from the book, “Building a Bridge,” and a petition to ban him from the World Meeting of Families collected thousands of signatures.
But the talk, delivered on Thursday to more than 1,200 people, passed without incident. Mr. Martin, editor-at-large of the Jesuit magazine America, said he spent three hours afterward signing books and talking with people, who were largely supportive of his view.
“One bishop told me, ‘Just the fact that they invited you is a sign,’ ” he said.
— Elisabetta Povoledo
Conservative Catholics have offered counterprogramming
An ultraconservative Catholic group, the Lumen Fidei Institute, has been holding a rival gathering in Dublin, criticizing Francis for pushing a “watered-down” version of Christian values and for adopting a more open view about gays in the Church.
Anthony Murphy, founder of the organization, told Crux, a Catholic news service, that bishops had become “embarrassed” to preach the Gospel.
“It’s ridiculous,” he told Crux. “These men, or are they mice, encounter a world, certainly the Western world, which is turning against God’s plan for family and marriage, and instead of countering that with an authenticity, they water down the truth and they give a message which is politically correct.”
— Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura
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