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[HairOfTheDog]

Irish Prime Minister ^ Leo Varadkar, in remarks in Dublin Castle before the pontiff spoke, set the tone for the visit in saying the time had come to build a "new" and "more mature" relationship between the Catholic Church and the Irish state.

“Building on our intertwined history, and learning from our shared mistakes and responsibilities, it can be one in which religion is no longer at the center of our society, but one in which it continues to have an important place,” he told several hundred dignitaries from Irish political, civic and religious life.  

He referred to "dark aspects" of the Catholic Church's history in Ireland, including illegal adoptions and child abuse by the clergy, as “stains on our State, our society and also the Catholic Church.”

Varadkar called the abuse “unspeakable crimes" that were perpetrated by people within the church "and then obscured to protect the institution." 

Addressing the Church’s handling of clerical sex abuse, the prime minister said there “can only be zero tolerance for those who abuse innocent children or who facilitate the abuse.”

Ireland has had one of the worst records of abuse in the world. Crimes were revealed to the deeply Catholic nation’s 4.8 million people through a series of government-mandated inquiries over the past decade. The reviews concluded that thousands of children were raped or molested by priests and physically abused in church-run schools while bishops covered up for abusers.

After the Irish church atoned for its past and enacted tough new norms to fight abuse, it had been looking to the first visit by a pope in 40 years to show a different, more caring church that understands the problems of Catholic families today.

Full story:  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/worl...096319002/