Pope's Visit to Ireland Will Not Fill Up Empty Churches If Something Is Not Done About Priest Pedophiles
NOBILO: Welcome become. Now for the first time in nearly 40 years a pope is getting ready to visit Ireland. In 1979, John Paul II got quite the reception. Back then an estimated 2.7 million people nearly half of the country turned out to see him. But four decades later, and times are very different. There will still be crowds. But years of sexual abuse scandals in Ireland and abroad will mean Pope Francis will be greeted by anger and protests. Let's go live to Dublin. Our Phil Black is there. Phil, so much has changed since the last visit of a pope to Ireland. What are the main factors that damaged the relationship between the congregation and the church community and the papacy in that country?</s>PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Bianca, it's a very different country now. The Pope Francis should not expect that unquestioning rock star style welcome. There are simply too many people here still suffering because of sexual abuse and other cruelties inflicted by priests and covered up by bishops. The legacy has impacted families across the country, from mental illness, addiction, trauma and suicide. But when you listen to victims and hear desperate harrowing stories you understand why they say words alone from the leader of the Catholic Church, no matter how eloquent or sincere can never be enough.</s>BLACK: There is no polite easy way to explain what happened to Darren McGavin on the grounds of this church when he was a child.</s>DARREN MCGAVIN, VICTIM OF PEDOPHILE: He put me over the table. And he had the vestments, the robes from the vestments. And he -- he tied me hands to me legs over the table. And began to rape me.</s>BLACK: From the age of 7 Darren was abused several times a week for more than four years by Tony Welsh one of Ireland's most notorious pedophile priests.</s>MCGAVIN: On one occasion I was raped with a crucifixion.</s>BLACK: Welsh destroyed his life. The years have been consumed by trauma and mental illness. How old are you now?</s>MCGAVIN: I'm 46 years of age and I've been medicated since I was 12. 12 years of age. So -- like when is it going to stop? Like when is it going to stop? I don't know.</s>BLACK: This is just one victim's story in a country deeply wounded by the horrific legacy of priests abusing vast numbers of children and often getting away with it. It will be the defining issue for Pope Francis when we visits once proudly Catholic Ireland.</s>MCGAVIN: Do this in memory of me.</s>BLACK: Where many churches are now largely empty, where the institution is struggling for purpose and credibility.</s>MARY COLLINS, SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIM: I went to the hospital when I was 12, just turned 13 and I was sexually assaulted by the catholic chaplain.</s>BLACK: After decades recovering. Mary Collins has become a powerful voice for reforming the church culture. Last year she walked away from a Vatican panel advising Pope Francis because nothing changed. And she wasn't satisfied with his recent written apology.</s>COLLINS: We have the Pope the other day in a strong letter. A lot it is good. But unfortunately, he says we are working on a way to find to hold people accountable. We're decades on. You can't still be working on it.</s>BLACK: Darren McGavin wanted to show us another painful location. In Phoenix Park where Pope Francis will say mass he takes us to a dark gully.</s>MCGAVIN: And then he lay me down on the mattress.</s>BLACK: Another place where he was raped by the priest he once trusted.</s>MCGAVIN: Didn't even get sorry -- didn't even say sorry like.</s>BLACK: Darren and other victims say apologies are important. But from the Pope they also want firm policies to ensure no one suffers like this again. So, the Pope's symbolic gesture will be examined and watched closely the coming two days. The expectation is he will be compassionate and heartfelt. But those victims say they must deliver a clear comprehensive plan for protecting children and dealing with clerical sexual abuse around the world. Anything less they say will be judged as failure. It could be a defining moment in the papacy. Bianca.</s>NOBILO: It sounds like it will be one, Phil. What sorts of firm policies as the people you were speaking to were referring to could there be? What do you think would apiece survivors and the church community in Ireland to hear from the pope? What are they looking for? What are the firm policies?</s>BLACK: Well it's often summed up by a simple phrase. Zero tolerance approach. Which sounds simple. But what they are talking about are really policies things like insisting on mandatory reporting of suspected sexual abuse. That is a law here in Ireland. But not a law everywhere the catholic church exists. The demand and see the Vatican impose that rule instead. Other things include accountability mechanism, not just for abusers but also those found to have covered up or protected abusers. As I say, very straightforward you would think practices and measures that would go a considerable way towards punishing and deterring people from conducting in this sort of behavior again. But the barrier they come up against repeatedly is often simply described as the culture of the church. And that has been enough to stop the church from implementing these sorts of reforms after more than decades of activism and campaigns and victims like that, very bravely telling their stories, very openly exposing the humiliation and pain at the hands of priests they once trusted, Bianca.</s>NOBILO: Phil Black in Dublin. Thank you very much for your reporting. Former Treasurer Scott Morrison is now Australia's sixth prime minister in just over ten years. After Malcom Turnbull was forced out by rivals in his party. Turnbull described the ousting as madness driven by a determined insurgency. Kristi Elu Stout has more on the political turmoil.</s>KRISTI LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's winter time in Australia. And Malcolm Turnbull's ruling liberal party has kicked him into the cold.</s>STOUT: Treasurer Scott Morrison now prime minister after MPs revolted after Turnbull's climate change goals.</s>SCOTT MORRISON, NEW AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: There's been a lot of talk this week about whose side people are on.</s>STOUT: Australia's fifth prime minister in as many years, the outgoing Turnbull, the latest victim of an ongoing ideological dispute over the warming planet. In the capital, the political climate has been red hot all week. Monday saw then Prime Minister Turnbull trying to save his job by backing away from the Paris climate deal. But it wasn't enough to stave off the challenge led by right winger Peter Dutton who forced two leadership ballots. The first on Tuesday, Turnbull clung to power.</s>TURNBULL: What I'm endeavoring to do is to obviously ensure that the party is stable, to maintain the stability of the government of Australia. That's critically important.</s>STOUT: But the prime minister's allies jumped ship.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The cannibalistic behavior of a government eating itself alive.</s>STOUT: And finally, on Friday, Scott Morrison emerged as a compromise between the parties warring left and right. Time up for Turnbull whose self-styled progressive politics never fit with many in the Australian main stream conservative party. He will quit parliament leaching serious questions as to whether an unelected prime minister will stand up to scrutiny and election must be held by May. For now, the ruling Liberal Party settled the question of leadership but crippling drought and winter time bush fires are keeping climate change in the spotlight in Australia. An issue dogging each prime minister to be sacked since 2007. Kristi Lu Stout CNN.</s>NOBILO: Still to come tonight on the show, Russian internet trolls are not just messing with the world's elections. We now know they've high jacked the debate on public health as well. And a surprising development in the, so far, warm relationship between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un. A live report on the snag is just ahead.