The Pope is visiting Ireland right now and to add to his list of hundreds of thousands of sexually abused children the Catholic church has had to finally confront, he can also add the mother and child home of Tuam in County Galway, where nuns murdered around 800 babies and children born out of wedlock and buried them in mass graves.

Pope faces call to resign over abuse cover-up claim

A former Vatican official has claimed Pope Francis had known about allegations of sex abuse against a prominent cardinal in the US for years.

As the pontiff brings the curtain down on his historic two-day visit to Ireland, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano has called on him to quit over his response to the global scandal still enveloping the Church.

Francis used a speech at Mass in Phoenix Park on Sunday to "ask forgiveness" for abuses committed by "members with roles of responsibility in the Church", which allegedly includes American Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

The 88-year-old resigned last month over claims of sexual abuse against a 16-year-old boy. Francis accepted McCarrick's resignation as cardinal last month, after a US church investigation found that an accusation he had sexually abused a minor was credible.

Archbishop Vigano has said he warned Francis about the allegations shortly after he became Pope in 2013.

In an 11-page statement, the archbishop compared cover-ups of abuse within the church to "a conspiracy of silence not so dissimilar from the one that prevails in the Mafia".

"Pope Francis has repeatedly asked for total transparency in the Church," Archbishop Vigano, a frequent critic of the Pope, wrote in the letter, which was carried by the National Catholic Register and several other conservative media outlets in the US and Italy.

"In this extremely dramatic moment for the universal Church, he must acknowledge his mistakes and, in keeping with the proclaimed principle of zero tolerance, Pope Francis must be the first to set a good example for cardinals and bishops who covered up McCarrick's abuses and resign along with all of them," he said.

The Vatican has not commented on the accusations, which include an assertion that other top officials were warned about McCarrick - one of the highest-ranking figures within the Church - as early as 2006.

Archbishop Vigano - the papal envoy in Washington from 2011 to 2016 - timed the release of the bombshell letter to coincide with the second day of the World Meeting of Families in Ireland.

Francis touched down in Ireland on Saturday morning for what was set to be a highly-charged two-day trip - the first papal visit to the country since 1979.

Pope Francis in Ireland: The ultimate guide

The Catholic Church has been vilified in Ireland after 9,000 reported cases of child abuse by priests and Francis met survivors during his first day in Dublin, during which he reportedly compared the corruption to human excrement.

He also made a speech at Dublin Castle in which he expressed his regret over historical abuse by Catholic priests in the country, and on Sunday he struck much the same tone.

:: Pope's 'secret' to a happy marriage

During a morning visit to Knock Shrine, where many Irish Catholics believe the virgin Mary and other Saints were seen in the late 19th century, Francis described the issue of abuse in Ireland as an "open wound".

And at Mass at Phoenix Park in the afternoon, the Pope requested a "pardon" for their crimes.

Words are not enough on abuse, even swear words

"We ask forgiveness for the abuses in Ireland, abuses of power, of conscience, and sexual abuses perpetrated by members with roles of responsibility in the Church," he said.

"In a special way, we ask pardon for all the abuses committed in various types of institutions run by males or female religious, and by other members of the Church, and we ask for forgiveness for those cases of exploitation through manual work that so many young women and men were subjected to.

"We ask forgiveness."

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar - who describes himself as a non-practising Catholic - also attended the Mass.

Ahead of the gathering, he tweeted: "Ireland is a different country to 39 years ago. But this visit has caused us to reflect more deeply on the relationship between Ireland the Church, brought to Ireland centuries ago."

On Saturday, during his welcome speech at Dublin Castle, Mr Varadkar was unafraid to refer to "dark aspects" of the history of the Church and condemned the abuse as "stains on our state, our society and also the church".

Tens of thousands of people gathered under dark clouds at Phoenix Park, a number that paled in comparison to the numbers that greeted Pope John Paul II in 1979, when more than 75% of the population flocked to see the pontiff.

Francis is scheduled to attend a farewell ceremony at Dublin Airport before his departure, with his plane due to arrive back in Rome at 11pm local time.

Halle- bloody- luea. at last, some western leader has had the brains and the guts to stop the outrageous funding of Palestinian terrorism against us. Looks like they're not going to be able to afford as many rockets, or tunnels into Israel. Guess who it was who stopped it?

Macron? Errrrr... no. He's a socialist Mark and as you should know, no socialist ever said a bad word about those lovelly, wonderful, cuddly, charitable, altruistic Palestinions. Have another try.

Here's a clue....he's responsible for having PB sectioned undr the mentally disabled act.

The state sponsored killing of white farmers and their families, along with the stealing of their land by the black South African government fascists, has suddenly come to a halt and I was wondering why? Hang on a mo', I've just took a wild guess, but Trump tweeted that he was going to look into the situation. I think it might just be down to him, but don't quote me.

The state sponsored killing of white farmers and their families, along with the stealing of their land by the black South African government fascists, has suddenly come to a halt and I was wondering why? Hang on a mo', I've just took a wild guess, but Trump tweeted that he was going to look into the situation. I think it might just be down to him, but don't quote me.

Your still repeating false news Major. It never happened. A right winger on Fox reported it and Trump repeated it before he found out that it wan't true. Notice he hasn't mentioned it again since.

So you're telling me that the South African government wasn't going to confiscate any white owned farms are you?

Trudope thought he had an economic ally in Mexico, in his economic war against Trump and now Mexico has signed a separate deal with the US, leaving Trudope stood there with his pants down. When is that clown going to realise he's totally out of his depth? Believe me, he'll have to wear the knees out on his pants shortly, or Canada will be in deep economic shite.

It was the mass killing of white farmers that he was trying to push Major.

In the round up today Mexicans along the border applying for or renewing their passports are being told that their birth certificated are now consistered fake. Many of them have been members of the American Armed Forces or are members of the American Border Services. To proof that they are not fake and this is no joke, they have been asked to prove who was the mid wifes that helped deliver them at birth. This is just Trump trying to appease his warped Base. These people that he has targeted have been voting in American elections for years with no problem but this is Trump's way of cancelling out their votes. Here it would be considered illegally tapering or trying to sway a Federal election. Lets hope we never lower ourselves to the standard being set right now in the States.

NAFTA talks are continuing today. The sticking points for Canada still are Chapter 19 which is the means of settling any trade disputes that may arise between our countries ( Trump wants to remove Chapter 19 which would put us at a great disadvantage ) and the over dumping of American Dairy produces on us which is considered challenging our sovereignty.

To get away from boring politics for a moment, this time tomorrow I will be in the presence of greatness.

Will she just be lip syncing like her and her sister are famous for or will she attempt to sing a song live.

Looks like she put on a few lbs. Goes well with her being a "notal." A few Tommy?? I've seen great grandmothers who look better than Britney and they didn't need a bag to carry a tune around in.

Will she just be lip syncing like her and her sister are famous for or will she attempt to sing a song live.

We her fans accept the trade off between singing live and the energetic performance, it's impossible to have both. I don't think anyone believes that she's got the best voice, but her stage routines are what we go for.

Don't be so hard on her, PBA.  I'll bet she invites Mark backstage. Ya him and two police escorts. She can't dance either Mark, she has the rhythm of a white girl.

So, can we put this down to good ol' fashioned perving?

On the same day Arizona held memorial services for the late Sen. John McCain, a Twitter user posted a doctored image that appeared to threaten to shoot Meghan McCain as she wept over her father's casket.

By that night, Ben Domenech, Meghan McCain's husband, was blasting Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for allowing the threatening post to stay up. 

"Tell me why this is cool by you," Domenech wrote on Twitter, targeting Dorsey's online handle, @jack.  

The photo appears to be a doctored version of a photo taken Aug. 29 at a private memorial service at the Arizona Capitol. During the emotional service, Meghan McCain wept over the casket holding her father's body. 

The edited image shows a pair of hands holding a semiautomatic handgun, clearly trained at the grieving woman's chest. 

"America," the tweet accompanying the photo reads, "this ones for you." 

In his later tweet, Domenech, publisher of conservative web magazine The Federalist, says that the threatening image had been online for half a day and "reported" more than 100 times, presumably meaning the tweet had been flagged for Twitter administrators. 

So, can we put this down to good ol' fashioned perving? Here, he would be in jail already if that answers your question. lol

Found out today that we already allow 10% of our dairy products to come from the States and they in return only let 3 % of ours in. And they now want us to except more of theirs while not increasing what they take from us. The Friday dead line has come and gone with no results.

They are still saying the deal that Trump said he made with Mexico isn't worth the paper it is written on because Congress is the only ones that can sign deals like that. I would prefer to make a separate deal with Mexico only and leave the States out of it. We would do much better and gain more if we let the tariffs put on us by Trump stand because it means the American people are actually paying us more for our lumber steel and aluminum which they can't produce enough of themselves to build homes, make cars or even keep their military in planes. We probably with these tariffs would be able to make and sell guns at 1/3 the price that Americans gun manufactures do. I can just visualize the borders being jammed with Americans crossing over to buy not only the cheaper drugs that we offer them now but saturday night specials that come in 6 packs.

Have you got your wood cut and in yet Tommy? Same question for you Major?

Britney was amazing, but why are these events SO LOUD, my ears are still ringing, she sang one song that must have been arranged differently from the version we know as I didn't recognize it as it was SO LOUD.  Also I had to leave before the end due to the last train. I reckon I missed about 15 minutes.

But she can still move and put on a great show AND I wasn't the oldest there, there were a surprisingly large number of young women, I thought that the audience would be made up of mostly men and women in their mid 30s upwards.

American farmers can go bust, no Canadian farmer can ever go bust, so what does that tell you? So why is that our fault, it's call organization.  If we catered to the States then our farmers would all go bust too. There are also higher standards on our dairy products than the States has. Their dairy cows are kept in the thousands in one barn and kept on milkers from birth to death. Ours are kept in small groups on individual farms and allowed to at least go out and eat grass and see the sunshine. If how they run their operations isn't considered animal cruelty then I don't know what is. As green peace always says,Save a forest, eat a beaver.

I see the Russian communist leader in charge of the occuped part of the Ukraines meet his end yesterday in a coffee shop. Pity eh!