TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has said he will raise the issue of child sex abuse with Pope Francis during the Pontiff’s visit to Ireland this weekend.
The Pope has already said he will meet with survivors of clerical abuse during his visit, having issued a letter earlier this week condemning clerical sexual abuse and cover-ups.
According to the Irish Times, the Taoiseach has said child sexual abuse is just one issue he wants to discuss with the Pontiff, despite only expecting to meet with him for 10 minutes at Dublin Castle.
“So my first words are absolutely going to be words of welcome on behalf of the Irish people… but there are a number of issues, ranging from human rights to child sex abuse, and I am going to want to talk about them as well,” the Irish Times reports the Taoiseach as saying.
Meanwhile on the first full day of the World Meeting of Families, Archbishop Eamon Martin admitted some people could ‘no longer trust’ the Church’s message in the wake of abuse revelations.
“In the aftermath of the child abuse scandals and other shameful episodes of the past in the Church, there are those who feel they can no longer trust our message,” he said.
