The Vatican has confirmed that Pope Francis has met with eight survivors of clerical, religious and institutional abuse.
The Pontiff spent an hour and a half with them at the Papal Nuncio's residence in Dublin on Saturday.
Among the eight survivors present was Marie Collins, who was abused by a priest as a child.
Yesterday at the World Meeting of Families, she said there's still denial within the church about the scale of clerical abuse and called for "every rotten apple" to be removed.
Abuse survivors Reverend Patrick McCafferty, Reverend Joe McDonald, councillor Damien O'Farrell and Bernadette Fahy were also present at the meeting as were Paul Jude Redmond and Clodagh Malone, who were both born in mother and baby homes.
One survivor, a victim of Fr. Tony Walsh, chose to remain anonymous.
The survivors asked him to state during tomorrow's Mass in the Phoenix Park that there is no sin in women from the Mother and Baby Homes being reunited with their children and also requested that he call on the nuns who ran the homes to immediately accept their responsibilities.
Earlier at Dublin Castle, Pope Francis said the failure to protect children was a great shame on the church.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar called on the pontiff to use his power and influence to make sure there's justice for all those who suffered at the hands of members of the clergy.
