Catholics...

Pope Francis will touch down at Dublin airport tomorrow, to become only the second pope (after John Paul II in 1979) to visit the Republic of Ireland, a country once synonymous with conservative Catholicism… but no longer. A giant drive-through confession box has been erected by bookmakers Paddy Power - “Repent decades of sins in seconds!” urges a hoarding outside - and 100,000 people are expected to line the streets of Dublin to glimpse Francis in his popemobile. But since the visit of John Paul II, when divorce, contraception, abortion and homosexuality were still illegal, and more than 90% of Irish people attended mass each week, congregations have gone into a steep and - I hope, irreversible - decline.

There will be yet more apologies for the clerical abuse of children, and millions - billions - of pounds have been set aside to meet more claims by the victims. The clergy were trusted men who listened to confessions, and had access to the most vulnerable and emotionally fragile people. The abuse of that trust is what mades clerical paedophilia particularly repellent. The Catholic Church has made a habit of apologising, but without actually doing anything.

Paedophile priests, careless of the destination of their own immortal souls, have proved themselves unable, even while preaching sexual continence to their flocks, to keep their hands to themselves. The abuse of children by Catholic priests has blighted many young lives and damaged the church’s reputation (though successive popes have added gratuitous insult to grave injury by being more concerned with the latter than the former). The church should wind itself up, without delay, and give all its billions to children’s charities...