Dubliners react ahead of first papal visit to Ireland in 40 years

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(24 Aug 2018) When St. John Paul II visited Ireland in 1979, the Catholic Church wielded such power that homosexuality, divorce, abortion and contraception were barely spoken of, much less condoned.
Catholic bishops had advised the authors of Ireland's constitution, and still held sway.
Today, as Pope Francis prepares to visit, the Catholic Church enjoys no such influence.
As once-isolated Ireland experienced a tide of secularism and economic boom that opened it to the world, the church largely lost its centrality in Irish life.
For many, the Pope's visit will not have a huge impact on their lives.
Ann Murphy, a local resident having lunch in a pub in central Dublin, said she had "nothing against the pope" and hoped he would "come forward and say about all the abuse that went on in the church".
Taxi driver Seamus Conroy said he was disappointed that, in spite of recent revelations about church sexual abuse cover ups, "a lot of things" were still not being spoken about in public.
"A change is needed at the top," he said. "And maybe they're appointing these people too old in life. And they are in not in touch with the reality of what is going on on the ground."
Francis will be confronted with that haunting past when he visits Ireland this weekend to close out the Vatican's big Catholic family rally.
The event, scheduled three years ago, had been aimed at boosting the church's visibility and voice, but a fresh wave of scandal across the Atlantic has overshadowed the visit.
And while Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has won plaudits from sex abuse survivors for spearheading the cleanup of the Irish church, survivors want Francis now to atone for the Vatican's sins in the cover-up.

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