DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Irish Independent
August 25, 2018
By Kevin Doyle
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/pope-francis-in-ireland/pope-francis-speech-calls-clerical-abuse-scandal-in-ireland-repugnant-makes-thinlyveiled-reference-to-abortion-referendum-37250833.html
– Pope Francis speech: Calls clerical abuse scandal in Ireland ‘repugnant’, makes thinly-veiled reference to abortion referendum
– Pope: Measures must be taken in response to ‘betrayal of trust’
– Warns about culture that doesn’t respect the unborn
– Varadkar: Church must acknowledge same-sex families and adopt zero tolerance towards abusers
MEASURES must be taken in response to the “betrayal of trust” and “repugnant” abuse inflicted on abuse victims in Ireland, Pope Francis has said.
In his first public statement since arriving in Dublin, the Pontiff said the Catholic Church must work to “remedy past mistakes and to adopt stringent norms meant to ensure that they do not happen again”.
Speaking in front of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Dublin Castle, Pope Francis also risked raising the temperature around his visit with a thinly-veiled reference to the abortion referendum.
He questioned whether a “materialistic ‘throwaway culture’” has made people “increasingly indifferent to the poor and to the most defenceless members of our human family, including the unborn, deprived of the very right to life”.
However, the Taoiseach told the audience that Ireland has “voted in our parliament and by referendum to modernise our 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 grandparent, lone parent or same-sex parents or parents who are divorced”.
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