Papal Visit: What the Papers Said
“Events have conspired to lay the abuse scandals at the
centre of the visit. Pope Francis must now step up to the
mark. Not since Mikhail Gorbachev broke up the Soviet
Union in 1991 has a world leader faced such a gargantuan
task.” -Joe Duffy, The Irish Mail on Sunday. ************
“From the moment he stepped off his plane, we saw the light of his
humanity shine brightly. Despite the horror of the clerical sex abuse
scandals, we were reminded that there is still something beautiful
and sacred at the heart of the old religion … Pope Francis
testifies to this love and compassion as the real face of the
Catholic Church. It is a face we see when a committed and
faithful priest tends to his flock each day. It is a face that
we see when, in the dark of night, he comes to administer
the Last Rites, or when he seeks to ease the pain of the bereaved and
broken-hearted … It is this Church -the Church that persists in spite
of those who betrayed it- that continues to serve so many Irish
people.” -Mark Dooley, The Irish Mail on Sunday. ************
“The Pontiff addressed the child abuse scandals that have rocked
the Irish Church yesterday at a number of different
occasions during the first day of his historic visit.
However, speaking in front of Taoiseach Leo
Varadkar in Dublin Castle, he also took a swipe at
the recently passed abortion referendum. He
questioned whether a ”materialistic, throwaway
culture“ has made people ”increasingly indifferent… to the most
defenseless members of our human family, including the unborn,
deprived of the very right to life“. -Alan Sherry, Sunday World. ************
“The growing calls for the separation of Church and State are valid,
but selective. What about the services the Church
provides as a safety net for those who fall through
the cracks of the System and society?… Amidst all
the narratives about how the country has progressed
over the past four decades, since the visit of the last
Pope, let’s recall the Capuchin Day Centre used to
help 50 needy people a day in 1969. Now they serve
800 hot meals a day to the poverty-stricken. Progress?” -Fionnàn
Sheehan, Irish Independent Supplement. ************
“However much Francis may wish to come among us as a
humble sinner, he cannot escape the reality that he heads
an institution that is struggling to fully confess its sins, let
alone do penance for them.” -Fintan O’Toole, The Irish
Times. ************
“The Pope could have said that he would ensure the church in every
country had in place the sort of very strong child
protection systems that now exist in the Irish
church. He could have said that proper systems of
accountability would be implemented worldwide
so that a bishop who failed to protect a child would
be sacked. Varadkar, for his part, directly criticised
the church over its child protection failings – but it
is not as if the state has a clean bill of health in this
regard. For example, who in the HSE has ever been
held responsible for the sexual abuse of children it
placed in foster care?” -David Quinn, The Sunday Times, 26.8.18.
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