Devout
Catholics and firebrand protestors rubbed shoulders on the streets of Dublin on
Saturday as Pope Francis visited the city, stoking fresh debate on the Church
and its role in covering up decades of abuse in Ireland.
Supporters
lined the streets outside Dublin Castle, cheering the pontiff as he waved back
from the rear of a modest Skoda following his meeting with the heads of the
Irish government and state.
As bells
rang out, Catholics — including a large Spanish contingent draped in flags of
their country — waved banners reading “We Heart The Pope” and “Pope Francis,
Together We Love You Forever”.
Some
youngsters chased the motorcade down the Dublin streets, which were shut to
traffic and lined with Irish police and sellers touting Vatican souvenir flags.
But as the
crowd thinned out, two women emerged as the centre of attention.
One of them,
Rosa Lopez, 45, was holding a banner covered in provocative anti-Pope and
anti-Catholic slogans, referencing historic abuse by the church.
“Solidarity
With Survivors” and “Pope Not Welcome”, they read.
“There was a
crime and it has to be prosecuted,” Lopez, originally from Spain but now a
resident of Dublin, told AFP.
“This is an
insult to survivors,” she added, in reference to the papal visit.
“He says he’s
sorry but it’s not enough.”
Multiple
investigations in Ireland have found that Church leaders protected hundreds of
predatory priests for decades.
There were
also serious abuses in Catholic-run homes and 14,500 former residents of the
facilities have applied for compensation under an official government scheme
for victims.
Former Irish
president Mary McAleese revealed this month she challenged Vatican attempts in
2003 to keep Church documents inaccessible to government investigators.
During the
visit, the pope admitted a “failure” by the Church to deal with the abuse
scandals that caused him “pain and shame”.
Some older
residents of the traditionally Catholic country gave Lopez stern looks as she
marched through crowds with her banner aloft, but a man drinking on a terrace
gave her a lone round of applause.
Dubliner
Anne-Marie Dean, 47, a Catholic volunteering for the pope’s visit with 90
youngsters from a youth group, earlier expressed anxiety over what she saw as
growing disrespect towards believers.
“In some
ways the Church has gone through a lot in the last few years — we’re talking
the last 10 to 20 years,” she said, as she waited for a glimpse of the
motorcade.
The debate
played out in realtime between a local supporter and Richard Duffy, 31, who was
walking the streets carrying a placard demanding “arrest the pope”.
“It just
boggles my mind that there’s a celebration for him coming here,” he said.
“They’re
still in denial and refusing to admit any fault or give any information that
they have on what went wrong here”, he added.
But the
local man, who wished to remain anonymous, stopped to defend the Catholic
leader.
“How can you
apologise for all of that — he’s only one man,” he asked.
“I left the
Church years ago and I saw the injustice in it but you don’t have to tarnish
everyone.”
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