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	Cardinal O'Malley, in Ireland, Washes Feet of Abuse Victims By Lisa Wangsness Boston Globe February 20, 2011 http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2011/02/cardinal_omalle_8.html DUBLIN -- Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley this afternoon washed the feet of Irish abuse victims as he presided alongside Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin at a "Liturgy of Lament and Repentance" for sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. O'Malley, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston, is in Ireland because he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to lead a review of the response to sexual abuse by the Archdiocese of Dublin. At today's service, held in St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin, O'Malley said that he and his aides have heard a great deal of painful testimony from victims and their families, but they also see reason to hope for a better future. "Today's service, which survivors so generously assisted in planning and are participating in, gives testimony to the longing of so many to rebuild and renew this Archdiocese and the Church throughout Ireland," O'Malley said. "Just as the Irish people persevered and preserved the faith when it was endangered, and carried it to many other countries, the commitment to sustain the faith provides the opportunity for the hard lessons of the crisis to benefit the Church, in our quest to do penance for the sins of the past and to do everything possible to protect children in the present and in the future." Martin said today's service was only a "first step." "The Archdiocese of Dublin will never be the same again," he said. "It will always bear this wound within it." At the outset of the service, O'Malley and Martin lay prostrate before a bare altar in a gesture of humility. Later, they washed the feet of five women and three men who were victimized by priests or church workers as children. Several of the victims wept. A handful of protesters gathered in front of the cathedral before the service began; one of them, who said she was raped in a church-run institution during her teenage years, held a sign that said, "Raped by Rome." The service was interrupted three times by people who were not scheduled to speak. One man said he was still being prevented from giving testimony about his case; another told a wrenching story of being beaten as a young boy in a church-run orphanage; a third asked those gathered to remember people who had taken their own lives as a result of sexual abuse. In each case, the congregation listened silently, and then applauded. The service included extended readings from the two devastating public reports published in 2009 on clergy abuse of Irish children. One report focused on the abuse of children in church-run institutions; the other on sexual abuse by clergy in the Archdiocese of Dublin. "Lord, we are so sorry for what some of us did to your children: treated them so cruelly, especially in their hour of need," the congregation said in unison after each reading. "We have left them with a lifelong suffering." Lisa Wangsness can be reached at lwangsness@globe.com
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