Abuse Survivor Turned City Councilor Posts Public Message Ahead of Pope's Dublin Visit

Activists, including Mannix Flynn, a city councilor and institutional abuse survivor, erected a series of posters in Dublin on August 23 intended as a message to Pope Francis ahead of his visit to Ireland.The posters were placed at a site in the city’s Temple Bar area, where a long-running installation, Somebody’s Child, protesting historical physical and sexual abuse in Ireland’s religious and state institutions, was located.In a blog post, Flynn said the installation was intended to send a “clear message” ahead of the pope’s visit.One of the posters includes the message: “These panels depict the lifelong suffering and anguish that clerical sexual abuse has left on the many hundreds of thousands of children, now adults, who experienced these crimes.”The message continued: “And we ask Pope Francis: Why is he saving the guilty? Why does he continue to cover up?”Pope Francis was expected to meet with survivors of clerical sexual abuse during his visit, which comes a week after the Catholic Church came under renewed scrutiny for its handling of abuse cases following the publication of a grand jury report on sexual abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses. Credit: Mark Malone via Storyful