Dublin Archbishop Washes Feet of Sex Abuse Victims

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has been seen as a rare champion of reform and repentance in the Catholic hierarchy as the clergy sex abuse crisis has pushed the Irish church to the abyss, and he reinforced that reputation on Sunday by washing the feet of eight abuse victims during a service in the cathedral in the Irish capital.

Martin was joined by Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, who has been spending time in Dublin as part of a Vatican team sent to assess the state of Catholicism in Ireland, which O'Malley reportedly planned to tell Pope Benedict XVI was "on the edge of collapse."

At the start of the 90-minute liturgy "of lament and repentance" Archbishop Martin and Cardinal O'Malley both prostrated themselves in silent prayer before the altar, the Irish Times reported.

The service was largely prepared by the victims and included readings from a damning 2009 Irish government report on widespread child abuse by priests in the Dublin archdiocese between 1975 and 2004. The report said the church in Ireland had "obsessively" concealed the abuse.

"For covering up crimes of abuse, and by so doing actually causing the sexual abuse of more children...we ask God's forgiveness," Archbishop Martin told the congregation in St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral. "The archdiocese of Dublin will never be the same again. It will always bear this wound within it."

Martin knelt as he washed the feet of five men and three women who had been abused by priests as children. O'Malley then dried their feet in a ritual that is seen as a classic gesture of penance and humility. The service recalls the passage in the Gospel in which Jesus washes the feet of his disciples, a scene that priests and bishops reenact each Holy Thursday evening before Good Friday and the celebration of Easter the following Sunday.

"For them to get down on their knees, it was humbling," Darren McGavin, 39, who was abused as a child, told Reuters. "I've found it hard to forgive, but today I found a small bit of closure."

"Today was a day of liberation for me," said another of the eight victims, a 63-year-old. "I never thought I'd live to see this day when the church gave full recognition for the horror that was there."

O'Malley said that the washing of the feet was a gesture of atonement that victims wanted and deserved.

"The wounds carried in Ireland as a result of this evil are deep and remind us of the wounds of the body of Christ. We think of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane as he experienced his own crisis," he said.

"He, too, was overwhelmed with sorrow, betrayed and abandoned. Not only survivors of abuse and their family members, but many of the faithful and clergy throughout Ireland can echo our Lord's plaintive cry, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' "

"But today, through the saving power of the cross, we come together to share in each other's sorrows as well as our collective hope for the future."

A woman victim also read from Matthew's gospel about Jesus and children, and his words that "anyone who is the downfall of one of these little ones...would be better drowned in the depths of the sea."

At the end of the liturgy a "Candle of Protection" was blessed by Archbishop Martin and lit from the Paschal Candle before it was carried in procession to nearby St Joseph's altar.