Father Tim Bartlett said he did not know what the Pope was writing after he asked for some paper while onboard a flight to the Knock shrine in the west of Ireland.
The Belfast-based cleric said hours later the pontiff would produce the same piece of paper as he addressed tens of thousands of people at an open-air mass in Dublin’s Phoenix Park and read out his plea for forgiveness.
During the mass, Francis vowed to pursue justice for victims of Church abuse in Ireland as he sought forgiveness for the country’s dark litany of clerical crimes.
The Pope laid bare the many forms of abuse and mistreatment meted out to children and vulnerable adults in past decades and also acknowledged that members of the Church’s hierarchy had sought to cover up the sins of colleagues and failed to show compassion for the victims.
Father Bartlett, who played a central role in co-ordinating the pontiff’s visit to the island in 2018, to attend the World Meeting of Families, said observing Francis pen the apology was his most vivid memory of the trip.
“The night before Pope Francis had had a long meeting with survivors of abuse, of clergy abuse and institutions run by the Church,” he said.
Father Tim Bartlett played a central role in co-ordinating the pontiff’s visit to Ireland in 2018 (Niall Carson/PA)
“He had many things after that meeting that he had to do, but on the Sunday morning on the airplane, once we were in the air, he turned around and he beckoned, and he asked for a piece of paper and I sent him up a piece of paper, and we noticed him writing on the paper at the front of the plane, and he folded up the piece of paper and put it into his pocket.
“We had no idea what it was about until later that afternoon when we were back in Dublin and we’re starting the mass, this huge mass in Phoenix Park, and he takes that piece of paper out of his pocket at the beginning of the mass and he reads it, and it was an apology in his own words and straight from his heart, having met the survivors the night before, for all of the abuse that had taken place in ...
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