Pope Leo has revealed he was physically attacked during a visit to Ireland.
‘Never in my life, anywhere in the world, have I been physically attacked as I was in Ireland, for just going out on the street,’ he stated.
He said he had to be rescued by an Augustinian priest, who witnessed the assault.
‘A man passes by, he looks at me, “You’re a priest” – and he starts attacking me. Fortunately, another Augustinian, who is twice as big as me, came to defend me,’ he said.
He added that he had never seen such a change in attitudes towards Catholicism as he had seen in Ireland.
He did not say exactly where or when the attack took place but he visited Ireland in June 2005 for the Augustinian celebrations in Fethard, Co. Tipperary, to commemorate the order’s 700th anniversary, and came to Ireland again two years later in 2007.
He made the claim in 2019 while he was still a bishop, and a video of him describing the attack has emerged on social media.
As then-bishop Robert Prevost, he was speaking at a conference in Peru, and warned his audience about how quickly attitudes to the Church could change.
St. Peter's Basilica, The Vatican. (Getty Images)
He then alluded to the change in attitudes to the clergy in Ireland following the clerical sex abuse scandals of the 1990s.
He said: ‘Pope Benedict spoke of the tendency in society to favour the clergy. I have never seen such a radical and rapid change as we are experiencing in Ireland, above all because of this [child abuse] scandal.
‘Where before around 2005, you could go to Ireland and if you were a priest people almost wanted to carry you on their shoulders.
‘And I’m not exaggerating much, maybe a little, but it was incredible. I’m from the United States but on visits to Ireland you were treated with extreme affection, with love, respect and adulation for the clergy. It was incredible.’
However, he said Ireland illustrated clearly how attitudes to the clergy could quickly change.
‘After the crisis, never in my life, anywhere in the world have I been physically attacked as I was in Ireland, for just going out on the street.
‘The pain and anger from this man – I don’t know if he was a victim or had lost faith in the Church, I have no idea what happened to him. But I truly believe it is a very important factor in the experience here in the Church as well.’
The then-bishop was speaking on the topic of ‘Promoting a culture of prevention and care for children in the context of sexual abuse in the Church’.
October 2005 saw the publication of the Ferns Report, which found that successive bishops had failed to adequately protect children from abuse in the Wexford diocese.
It uncovered more than 100 allegations of sexual abuse against 21 priests who had been working in the diocese between 1966 and 2002.
Fr Iggy O’Donovan, an Augustinian priest who has met the Pope several times – including this week in Rome – told Extra.ie he had not heard of the attack before.
He said: ‘I have never heard about that. He would have visited Augustinian houses in Ireland, and met the local congregations.
‘It is quite likely someone might have said something to him, or been upset or angry, but an attack has never come to my attention before.
‘I think it might be a tad exaggerated.’
Fr O’Donovan first met the Pope when they were both studying for the priesthood in Rome in the early 1980s.
* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
Comments