MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th August, 2018) Pope Francis is set to begin his official two-day visit to Ireland on Saturday amid the ever-emerging reports about children molested by catholic clergy across the world.
During his visit, the pop is set to have a largely anticipated meeting with victims of clerical sexual abuse as well as with a number of state officials and attend the World Meeting of Families Congress in Dublin. Before departing for Vatican, he will also deliver a mass in Phoenix Park in the country's capital on Sunday.
Pope Francis will arrive in Ireland just over week after another massive cover-up of sexual abuse and rape of minors by catholic priests was revealed, with a grand jury report showing that more than 1,000 children had been molested by at least 301 Roman Catholic priests in the US state of Pennsylvania since the 1940s.
On Monday, Pope Francis released a letter addressing the problem of sexual abuse and condemning the crimes committed by priests. However, Deirdre Kenny, the advocacy director for the Irish One in Four non-governmental organization, told Sputnik on Friday that priests' victims in Ireland had had enough of "palliatives" on the part of Vatican and real measures were needed.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Wednesday that he would not "skirt over" the issue of sexual abuse during his meeting with the pope.
Ireland, where almost 80 percent of the population consider themselves Roman Catholics, according to the 2016 census, has also seen its share of clerical molestation scandals. In 2009, a report revealed that Archdiocese of Dublin and other authorities of the Catholic Church in the country covered up sexual abuse by priests for almost 30 years, from 1975 to 2004.
Pope Francis will be the first leader of the Catholic Church to visit Ireland for over four decades.
