Pope Francis On Centuries Of Trafficking Of Tiny Irish Humans - "Oops, Our Bad"

After hundreds of years of children being Legally Kidnapped from their mothers, children being raped, children giving birth, tortured and murdered, Pope Francis says, "Oops, Our bad."

Needless to say, the people of Ireland were not too thrilled.

I wonder what he is going to say to the generations of "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth) in the U.S., who have been stripped of their legacies, and their children sold to their tax exempt god, otherwise known as foster care, adoption, and about the nasty ass shit they do to the children in their care and in society.

Release the Trust Funds and give us back our children, that would be a start for reparations.

Pope Francis in Ireland: Call for Resignation Further Clouds Visit

On the second day of a difficult mission to win back the confidence of Irish Roman Catholics, Pope Francis awoke on Sunday to a bombshell accusation from within his own citadel.

A former top-ranking Vatican official released a 7,000-word letter asserting that the pontiff knew about the abuses of a now-disgraced American prelate, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, years before they became public.

The official, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a conservative critic of Francis and a former apostolic nuncio to the United States, claimed that the pope had failed to punish Cardinal McCarrick, who was suspendedin June after allegations that he had coerced seminarians into sexual relationships. He was also found to have abused a teenage altar boy 47 years ago, when he was a priest in New York.

In the letter, published on Saturday in Italian by The National Catholic Register and in English by LifeSiteNews, both critical of Francis, the archbishop called on the pope to resign.

“In this extremely dramatic moment for the universal Church,” the archbishop wrote, “he must acknowledge his mistakes and, in keeping with the proclaimed principle of zero tolerance, Pope Francis must be the first to set an example for cardinals and bishops who covered up McCarrick’s abuses and resign with all of them.”

In a news conference on the papal plane back to Rome late Sunday evening, Pope Francis sought to avoid questions about the accusations. “I will not say a single word about this,” he said.

The archbishop’s startling accusation will not come as a complete surprise to Vatican watchers, since he is part of a conservative camp that blames liberals, like the pope, for allowing homosexuality in the church. But it further complicates Francis’ efforts to convince Irish Catholics that the church is ready to confront its legacy of concealing sexual abuse.

• Francis prayed at a shrine in the village of Knock on Sunday and then returned to Dublin to celebrate Mass, a day after meeting with survivors of abuse.

• In Knock, he addressed the issue of child sexual and institutional abuse by members of the church, begging “for the Lord’s forgiveness” for “the scandal and betrayal.”

• Vigils were held across the country, including in Tuam, where the remains of hundreds of children were found buried in an abandoned septic system of a Catholic-run home for unmarried mothers.

• The New York Times has live coverage of the pope’s visit to Ireland. Here are highlights from Saturday.

A conservative archbishop has waded into Vatican power struggles before

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a former apostolic nuncio to the United States, wrote a 7,000-word letter asserting that Pope Francis had known about the abuses of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick years before they became public.

Archbishop Viganò’s attack on Pope Francis was not the first time he has been at the center of a Vatican controversy.

Three years ago, the archbishop arranged a personal meeting between the pontiff and Kim Davis, a county clerk from Kentucky who became a heroine to social conservatives by refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The meeting appeared to plant Francis firmly on one side of the American debate over gay rights and resulted in a media storm, something he had hoped to avoid.

The archbishop has figured in a series of Vatican power struggles. A cultural conservative, he represents a camp within the Vatican that has pressed the pope to strengthen the church’s doctrinal opposition to same-sex marriage.

In 2011, he was removed from the post to which Pope Benedict appointed him, secretary of the governorate of Vatican City State — akin to the mayor of Vatican City — and he was transferred to the United States, a move seen as a kind of administrative exile.

This followed a campaign of anonymous articles about the archbishop, later known as Vatileaks, complaining of his rough management style. In one leaked letter, Archbishop Viganò angrily complained that he had been promised an elevation to cardinal.

— Ellen Barry

In Dublin Mass, the pope rallies a demoralized church

An aerial view of the crowd gathered for Pope Francis’ Mass at Phoenix Park in Dublin on Sunday.

Thirty-nine years ago, when Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass in Phoenix Park in Dublin, around a million people — roughly a third of Ireland’s population — showed up.

At 3 p.m. on Sunday, the crowd that gathered for Pope Francis was nowhere near as large.

Aerial footage showed fewer people than expected on the streets to greet Francis as he made his way around in his Popemobile, including a trip to St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral from Dublin Castle on Saturday. It was unclear whether a protest called “Say Nope to the Pope,” which encouraged people to snap up free tickets and then skip the events, was having an effect.

In his Mass, Francis sought to rally a church battered by secularism as well as its history of clerical and institutional abuse. He compared the task of the faithful to that of early Irish missionaries such as St. Columbanus, who sought to spread the faith to Europe in “an age of darkness and cultural dissolution.”

Francis described meeting with survivors of abuse by priests and members of religious orders, saying he wanted to put “in front of God’s mercy these crimes” and ask forgiveness for them.

“In a special way,” the pope said, “we apologize for all the abuses committed by institutions run by male and female religious and other members of the church. And we ask for forgiveness for the crimes so many minors were subjected to.”

He added, using words that many disappointed Catholics had been waiting to hear: “Some members of the hierarchy didn’t own up to these painful situations and kept silence. We ask for forgiveness.”

He also acknowledged the church’s role in separating tens of thousands of unmarried mothers from their babies, and encouraged those mothers and children to reunite.

“For all those times when it was said to many single mothers who tried to look for their children who had been estranged from them, or to the children who were looking for their mothers, that it was a mortal sin: “This is not a mortal sin,” he said. “It is the Fourth Commandment! We ask for forgiveness.”

Decades of clerical abuse, forced adoptions, forced labor in industrial houses and other exploitation gutted the Catholic Church in Ireland. And as the Irish government has broken free from the church’s hold, its people have voted in ways contrary to church teaching. They have legalized divorce and same-sex marriage, and in May took a major step toward the legalization of abortion.

In a speech beside the pope on Saturday, Ireland’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar, acknowledged all of the church’s contributions to Irish society, including its hospitals and schools, but also made clear that Ireland liked the direction it was heading in.

The pope, in his homily on Sunday, seemed to have no illusions of how hard his task is.

“Let us also humbly acknowledge that, if we are honest with ourselves, we too can find the teachings of Jesus hard,” he said. “How difficult it is always to forgive those who hurt us.”

— Ellen Barry and Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura

Visiting a shrine in Knock

Visitors at the Knock Shrine in Ireland. The pope was expected to pray at the shrine, where in 1879, 15 people were said to have seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist.

Earlier Sunday, Francis headed to the tiny, hilly village of Knock, home to fewer than 1,000 people. Knock, in County Mayo in the west of Ireland, has served as an engine of faith for the Catholic Church since 1879, when a group of townspeople reported seeing apparitions of the Virgin Mary and other members of the Holy Family.

Around 45,000 Catholic pilgrims made their way here on Sunday, through heavy traffic and pouring rain. Francis used his time in the village to beg for God’s forgiveness.

Under drizzly, misty skies and the soothing sounds of “Ave Maria,” silent onlookers surrounded the Knock Shrine, which went into lockdown at 9:20 a.m., a few minutes before the plane carrying Francis touched down at Ireland West Airport.

“The pope has arrived,” the choir announced as a screen showed his descent from the plane. Audience members cheered, clapped and said, “God bless him.”

At the shrine, the pope declared, “None of us can fail to be moved by the stories of young people who suffered abuse, were robbed of their innocence, who were taken from their mothers, and left scarred by painful memories.”

“This open wound challenges us to be firm and decisive in the pursuit of truth and justice,” he said. “I beg the Lord’s forgiveness for these sins and for the scandal and betrayal felt by so many others in God’s family.”

Francis prayed at the shrine, asking the Virgin Mary to heal those who have been abused.

John Paul II also prayed in the village on the last papal visit to Ireland, in 1979. After that visit, the local priest, Msgr. James Horan, drew widespread mockery for vowing to build an airport in the tiny village.

“Now don’t tell anybody,” he told a television crew. “We’ve no money, but we’re hoping to get it next week or the week after.”

The airport was completed in 1986; in its way, it became a symbol of the power of the Catholic church.

For this papal visit, the village prepared feverishly. More than 50,000 flowers were planted, buildings along the main road were repainted, and every bed-and-breakfast in town — including those called the Lamb of God, Divine Mercy and the House of Eden — was fully booked by Friday.

“It was very emotional when we saw the pope in 1979,” said Tina Stenson-Cunningham, 63, holding a railing by the road where the Popemobile was expected to pass.

“But now we’ve experienced more of life, it’s more meaningful, more spiritual,” she said.

— Iliana Magra and Jason Horowitz

Paying tribute to Dublin’s ‘Holy Drinker’

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A Dublin statue of Matt Talbot, who died in 1925 and has since become a patron of those struggling to stay sober. Francis is rumored to be considering making him a saint.

Matt Talbot died in obscurity 93 years ago, having drawn little attention during a quiet existence of modest means and hard labor. But on Saturday, the leader of the world’s Catholics stopped at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Dublin to pray before relics of Talbot, who is far better known in death than he was in life.

Talbot, an alcoholic Dubliner known as the Holy Drinker, overcame his addiction with the help of a priest and became deeply religious. His story spread rapidly after his death. Substance abuse clinics around the world are named for him, as is a bridge in Dublin with a statue of him nearby.

Already an unofficial patron saint to those struggling to stay sober, he may be granted official status. The church gave him the title “venerated” in the 1970s, a step toward canonization.

One of 12 children born to a poor family, with a father who was a violent alcoholic, Talbot began drinking heavily at age 12 and became so addicted that he once pawned his boots to buy a pint at a pub. At 27, he swore never to touch alcohol again — a vow he kept until his death, 42 years later.

“Never go too hard on the man who can’t give up drink,” he is quoted as having said. “It is as hard to give up drink as it is to raise the dead to life again.”

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