POPE FRANCIS VISITS IRELAND

Pope Francis in Ireland. Not like the old days.

                                Visit surrounded by child sex abuse and a changed country.

Harry Hutchinson

Labour Party Northern Ireland.

Almost 40 years ago Pope John Paul 2nd was greeted by over one million fellow worshippers on his visit to Ireland. Over 90% of Irish Catholics attended mass in a country where Homosexuality, divorce, abortion, and same sex marriage were banned.

Today less than 30% of Catholics attend mass. Referendums now allow divorce, same sex marriage and abortion and homosexuality was decriminalized. Less than half the number are expected to greet Pope Francis in Dublin and Knock as support for the church has dwindled and public attention is focused on the decades of child sex scandals.

The child sex scandals go back to the early 1960's. To date hundreds of priests have allegedly abused thousands of children. The most notorious being Fr. Brendan Smyth a Priest in Belfast, Dublin and the US who was jailed for abusing 140 children.

The Ferns report in 2009, which looked into one Diocese alone, documented 100 allegations of child sex abuse between 1962-2002, of rape, physical and sexual assault and forcing mothers into having birth. 21 Priests were investigated in the Diocese, with the report concluding ''child abuse was endemic in Catholic run schools and orphanages.'' Yet the Catholic Church is still allowed to control these institutions though out Ireland.

In the town of Tuam in Co Galway 800 infants lie buried in a mass grave in the Catholic run Bon Secours mother and baby home where mothers were forced to put their new born babies up for adoption.

Several reports like the Ryan (2000) and Murphy (2009), document 100's of children being abused over a 40 year period. Follow up reports like the Cloyne have found Vatican cover up as well as that of the Gardai (Police). In Northern Ireland the 'Historical allegations of abuse' (HIA) is investigating four Catholic run institutions as far back as 1922.

Child sex abuse by the Catholic Church is not confined to Ireland. In the US a Grand jury in Pennsylvania discovered Church cover up, collusion, denial and pay off’s in the investigation of 1000 child victims by 300 Priests. This investigation looked into just 6 of the over 200 Dioceses in the US.

Pope Francis has been an accomplice  in the cover up, putting the integrity, wealth and power of the church before the victims. Francis was forced to apologize for his own ''serious errors''.

This Pope along with the pedophile Priests should be on trial for almost a century of abuse scandal.