BLESSINGTON (IRELAND)
The Associated Press
August 23, 2018
By Nicole Winfield and Pietro de Cristofaro
When St. John Paul II visited Ireland in 1979, the Catholic Church wielded such power that homosexuality, divorce, abortion and contraception were barely spoken of, much less condoned. Catholic bishops had advised the authors of Ireland’s constitution, and still held sway.
Today, as Pope Francis prepares to visit, the Catholic Church enjoys no such influence.
As once-isolated Ireland experienced a tide of secularism and economic boom that opened it to the world, the church largely lost its centrality in Irish life.
Then the church — while still maintaining a stronghold on education and health care in Ireland — lost its moral credibility following revelations of the widespread sexual abuse of children in its churches, the physical torture of youngsters in its schools and the humiliation of women in its workhouses.
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