IRELAND
Vatican Insider
Speaking “in the name of the Church” he asked forgiveness for the sexual abuse of children by priests and religious in Ireland and elsewhere in the world
Gerard O’Connell
Rome
Cardinal Marc Ouellet met with a representative group of survivors of child abuse by priests and religious in Ireland at the famous pilgrimage site of Lough Derg associated with Saint Patrick, and asked forgiveness for the sexual abuse of children by priests and religious.
The victims included representatives of institutional and clerical abuse, both men and women, from different parts of the Ireland, north and south. During the two-hour meeting with the cardinal each survivor spoke of his or her own personal experience of abuse and the impact it had on their lives.
The Cardinal is representing Pope Benedict XVI at the 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin. At the pope’s request, he travelled to Lough Derg, a small lake island in County Donegal near the border with Northern Ireland, and spent two days there (June 11-12), fasting and doing the traditional penitential exercises that pilgrims do, before meeting with the victims.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.