The Archbishop of Dublin has said that Pope Francis’s plea for forgiveness in 2018 for abuse scandals in the Catholic Church was an example of the “great mark of the man”.
The Archbishop of Armagh said that survivors’ stories of abuse loomed over the 2018 trip and that a year later the pontiff gathered bishops from around the world to ensure safeguarding mechanisms were in place.
The pontiff’s visit to Ireland in 2018, as part of the World Meeting of Families, was overshadowed by Ireland dealing with the legacy of abuse scandals by figures and institutions of the Catholic Church.
His visit prompted several demonstrations, including at a mass grave of infants at a former home for unmarried mothers in Co Galway, and at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin.
Along with meeting homeless people at a centre run by the Capuchin Fathers and praying at the Knock shrine in Co Mayo, the Pope met with survivors of clerical abuse.
After meeting with survivors on Saturday evening, he penned a plea for forgiveness that he later delivered during an open-air mass in Phoenix Park.
During that address, he asked for “forgiveness for the abuses in Ireland” and for “pardon for all the abuses committed in various types of institutions”.
Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell said the issue of mother and baby homes was “very much in the fore” at the time.
“A mark of the man, he responded to that very spontaneously at the mass in the Phoenix Park, when he wrote his own penitential right shaped around what he had heard from some people who had found themselves in that home during their life.”
He said he introduced a formal document of the structure for dealing with cases of abuse and sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, including for not properly dealing with it.
The Dublin archbishop also said Francis himself admitted to making mistakes but had learned from them.
He added: “When he came as Archbishop of Buenos Aires into the papacy, he had that great empathy for people who had suffered in their lives, and nobody has suffered more than people who have personally experienced sexual abuse or found themselves in difficult situations in life, and it was because of that empathy that he was able to offer his apology to these people, and that’s a great mark of the man that we are mourning today.”
Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin said the 2018 visit was “overshadowed by the story of abuse” but that the Pope confronted bishops around the world about abuse in 2019.
“By gathering the bishops of the entire world together in 2019 – I was present at that to represent the bishops of Ireland – he was making it very clear, abuse is a problem of humanity,” he said.
“It is a problem that is not unique to any one continent or to any one country. And he therefore confronted all of the bishops present to ensure that they had proper safeguarding mechanisms in place, that they had procedures for following up all survivors of abuse.”
Irish premier Micheal Martin said people would remember the Pope’s “expression of pain and shame” during the 2018 visit over historic child abuse in the Catholic Church and the failure of the religious institution to “adequately address these appalling crimes”.
“In Ireland, I think, he did deal with the issues of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, acknowledged his own failings in that regard, and in many ways his non-judgmental approach to life itself enabled him to deal with these issues, perhaps ultimately more effectively than maybe others,” the Taoiseach said speaking at Fairyhouse.
“Subsequently, not in respect of Ireland, but he did comment that he had, in other instances, not responded as sufficiently, as appropriately as he should have, and he said that himself.
“I think overall he will be remembered as someone who cared deeply about each individual and was particularly hurt by the wrongs that were committed by members of the Church on people, particularly young children.”
Colm O’Gorman, a survivor of clerical abuse and the former head of Amnesty International Ireland, organised the rally at the Garden of Remembrance to coincide with the Phoenix Park Mass in 2018.
He said what Pope Francis delivered at the Mass was not an apology and no pope has yet apologised for abuse at Catholic institutions.
“I have yet to see a papal apology for abuse anywhere and it’s always very frustrating when the statements that various popes have made over the years are presented as an apology,” he told PA.
“What popes generally do – and that includes, sadly, Pope Francis – is they speak of their regret and sadness, or sorrow at the hurt caused to so many people. That’s not an apology. It’s an expression of sorrow.
“No pope has ever done that (apologised). The Vatican has never, ever, ever acknowledged its central role in not just permitting these cover-ups to happen, but in directing these cover-ups.”
