Pope Francis has said he is ashamed of the Catholic Church's failure to adequately address the "repellent crimes" of sex abuse by clergy.
The Irish prime minister earlier delivered a strong warning to the Pope to take action against clergy involved in child abuse and keeping it secret.
The Pope spent 90 minutes with abuse survivors, reportedly telling them he viewed clerical sex abuse as "filth".
The papal visit is the first to the Irish Republic for 39 years.
It coincides with the World Meeting of Families, a global Catholic gathering held every three years.
The Argentine Pope's opening remarks echoed a letter he sent to the world's 1.2bn Roman Catholics this week, in which he condemned the "atrocities" of child abuse and clerical cover‑ups.
[Source: BBC]
