Limerick, Ireland, Aug 16, 2018 / 12:01 pm
The Pope's visit to Ireland is a time for the Church to reflect on her past failings and consider how to repair the Church for future generations, an Irish bishop has said.
Pope Francis will visit Ireland Aug. 25-26 as part of the World Meeting of Families, an international gathering of Catholic families that takes place about every three years. The last World Meeting of Families was held in Philadelphia in 2015.
In his homily for the feast of the Assumption, Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick said that the Pope's visit is a chance for the Church to acknowledge "the dark aspects of our Church's history that have come to light especially in recent decades."
He then named several of the Church's past failings and sins, including "a clericalism that ended up confusing power and ministry, the sexual abuse of minors by clergy and religious that did untold life-long damage to victims, the violent and repressive treatment by church representatives of young people sent to the State's reformatory institutions, the dark experience of vulnerable women in places meant to be residences of refuge," according to the Irish Times.