In our lifetimes, revelations surfaced of decades-long sexual, physical and emotional abuse carried out by the clergy. The outcomes of three government-initiated investigations detailed systemic, institutional abuse that was intentionally covered up by the Irish Catholic hierarchy. The depth of the victims’ suffering is nearly impossible to imagine. Children were beaten, sexually abused, humiliated. Separately, it also emerged that women were thrown into so-called Magdalene Laundries — Dickensian institutions for the unmarried who became pregnant or were seen as promiscuous. All the while, the Irish state — once almost indistinguishable from the church itself — turned a blind eye. The government has yet to set up an independent investigation focused on the laundries.
But the fawning Ireland of 1979 is no more. Pope Francis will have to contend with protests, such as the one organized by abuse survivor and Amnesty Ireland executive Colm O’Gorman. Former President Mary McAleese has called the Catholic event a “right-wing rally,” and Ireland’s paper of record, the Irish Times, is running articles with titles such as “Can’t pope, won’t pope? Seven ways to avoid the papal visit.”
So what does a changed Ireland expect from this visit? At the very least that the pope gives survivors of abuse what they say they need. He would do well to individually apologize to the victims of abuse and to release the so-called secret files relating to cases dating as far back as 1962 — when the Vatican told Catholic bishops all over the world to cover up abuse cases under threat of excommunication.
