Pope prays for strength that justice be done for survivors

Pope Francis has used Mass in Dublin’s Phoenix Park to to beg forgiveness and issue a wide-ranging apology for Church abuses.
In an unprecedented extended penitential rite at the beginning of Mass with an estimated 500,000 people for the World Meeting of Families, the Pontiff said that he wanted to seek forgiveness for abuse of power, conscience and sexuality.
“We apologise for abuses in Ireland, abuses of power and conscience and sexual abuse by members of the clergy”.
Speaking in Spanish which was then spoken in English by an interpreter, the Pope said “In a special way, we apologise for all the abuses committed in various types of institutions run by religious men and women and the members of the Church, and we apologise for the cases of labour exploitation to which so many minors were subjected”.
According to an unofficial working translation, he said “we apologise for some members of the hierarchy who did not take care of these painful situations and kept silent”.
He added: “We ask forgiveness. We apologise for the children who were estranged from their mothers”. He also apologised to children separated from their mothers in Church-run institutions who were told it would be sinful to look for their birth mother.
“May the Lord increase this state of shame and compunction, and give us the strength to commit ourselves to work so that it never happens again and for justice to be done,” he concluded at the beginning of the Mass.