Irish PM: time to move Catholic church from centre of society

The Irish prime minister has called for a new relationship between church and state in which religion is no longer at the centre of society, as the pope made his first visit to Ireland this weekend.

In a blistering speech focusing on the failings of the church, delivered in the presence of Pope Francis, Leo Varadkar, the taoiseach, said a new covenant for the 21st century was needed that reflected the modern country Ireland had become and learned from “our shared mistakes”.

Pope Francis, who is on a two-day visit to Ireland, repeated earlier acknowledgements of the “grave scandal” of child sexual abuse and the church’s failures to confront it, but he failed to address survivors’ growing demands for action.

Francis said: “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 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. I myself share those sentiments.”

On Saturday evening, the pope spent more than an hour meeting privately with eight survivors of abuse committed by clerics or church institutions. In a statement, the survivors said Francis “condemned corruption and cover up within the church as ‘caca’. Literally filth as one sees in a toilet,” his translator clarified.

First day of Pope Francis's Irish visit – in pictures Read more

Varadkar’s speech focused on the “dark aspects” of the Ireland’s history. “The failures of both church and state, and wider society, created a bitter and broken heritage for so many, leaving a legacy of pain and suffering. It is a history of sorrow and shame,” he said.

Child sexual abuse, the Magdalene Laundries, mother and baby homes and illegal adoptions were “stains on our state, our society and also the Catholic church. People kept in dark corners behind closed doors, cries for help that went unheard.”

The taoiseach also referred to the recent grand jury report on clerical abuse in Pennsylvania, talking of “brutal crimes perpetrated by people within the Catholic church, and then obscured to protect the institution at the expense of innocent victims”.

“It is a story all too tragically familiar here in Ireland,” he said.

He also said there was “much to be done to bring about justice and truth and healing for victims and survivors … We must now ensure that from words flow actions.”

Pope on sexual abuse: 'We showed no care for the little ones' Read more

Turning to the profound changes in Irish society since the last papal visit in 1979, Varadkar said the country was more diverse, less religious and had modernised its laws on divorce, contraception, abortion and same sex marriage, “understanding that marriages do not always work, that women should make their own decisions, and that families come in many different, wonderful forms, including those headed by a grandparent, lone parent or same-sex parents, or parents who are divorced”.

The changes meant the time had come “for us to build a new, more mature relationship between church and state in Ireland – a new covenant for the 21st century”.

It would be one “in which religion is no longer at the centre of our society, but in which it still has an important place”, he said.

Pope Francis’s brief visit to Ireland has prompted demands for action at the highest levels of the church to deal with the systemic cover-up of abuse by priests and others.

Although he received a rapturous welcome from thousands of pilgrims who have travelled to Ireland for the Catholic church’s World Meeting of Families, there are also protests over the church’s handling of clerical abuse scandals.

As Francis celebrates mass with 500,000 people at Phoenix Park on Sunday, survivors of sexual abuse and their supporters will hold a vigil at Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance.

Another vigil will be held at the site of a mass grave containing the remains of infants discovered last year at a Catholic mother-and-baby home in Tuam where almost 800 children died.

Maeve Lewis of the survivors’ organisation One in Four said the pope’s speech at Dublin Castle was a missed opportunity to set out concrete steps to deal with child sex crimes in the Catholic church”.

“Until recently the Vatican encouraged local bishops to deal discreetly with allegations, placing other children at risk,” she said. “No pope has ever accepted responsibility for the Vatican’s role in the cover-ups. Acknowledgement of this complicity would have been a good start in Dublin Castle today.

“Survivors are weary of apologies that are not followed up with real action.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Pope Francis arrives at Dublin airport. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA

As Francis was driven through the centre of Dublinon Saturday afternoon, there was a generational divide in attitudes.

Louise Clifford, 24, a designer from Limerick who now lives in the capital, said: “If this was 20 years ago this street would be full, but there are about 20 people and the pope is about to drive by.”

She said she and her friends were “not really religious” but described herself as a “cultural Catholic”. “It’s the norm in Ireland,” she said.

Bernard Connelly, 82, from Rimnheh on the outskirts of Dublin, was waiting eagerly. “I’ve seen five popes in my lifetime and I think Pope Francis is fantastic. He tells it like it is.

“This abuse scandal has gone on for years and years. There is no getting away from it. Please God it will be fixed soon. Let’s hope Pope Francis is the man to do it.”

According to Sarah Carolan, 33, there was a “nice buzz” around the pope’s visit. “I am Catholic but not a believer,” she said. “I was raised Catholic, married in church and all that craic. My sympathies are with the people who suffered at the hands of the church, but I also think there is good there.”