He is due to arrive in Dublin on Saturday for two days of meetings with families and political authorities as well as a trip to a shrine revered by Catholics.

Earlier this week the leader of the world’s Catholics condemned the “atrocities” of child sex abuse and clerical cover-ups in a strongly worded letter to members of the church.

The Catholic Church in the Republic has been rocked by revelations of wrongdoing by members of the religious orders stretching back decades.

A spokeswoman for the Vatican, when asked about the Pope’s meeting with Irish survivors, confirmed it would take place.

Protesters have arranged a series of rallies coinciding with the pontiff’s trip to the Republic to highlight what they believe has been the church’s failure to properly address wrongdoing.

Last week a grand jury report outlined seven decades of abuse in Pennsylvania.

The investigation found more than 1,000 children had been abused by 300 priests.

The Pope has apologised after defending a bishop in Chile who was accused of hiding abuses by a priest.

The latest Vatican intervention on the issue comes as Ireland gears up for its first papal visit in 40 years during which at least half a million people are expected to attend a papal mass in Dublin’s
Phoenix Park.

Several protests by groups campaigning for clerical abuse victims are set to take place during the visit.

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A large section of the Morandi Bridge collapsed on 14th August during a heavy downpour, killing 43 people and forcing the evacuation of more than 600 others living in apartment buildings beneath another section of the bridge.

The group of protestant churches in Italy said it “invites believers to pray for those who were injured, their family and for all those who suffered from material and emotional damage”.

Among those who died was the sister of an evangelical pastor, while one Christian family had to evacuate their home.

They said: “For these brothers and sisters in Christ our prayer is that the Lord will provide consolation and what they need immediately and long-term.”

The alliance has started a voluntary donation that will be collected by evangelical churches there “to help with their relief and spiritual work.”

In their prayer requests for the area, they said:

“Our prayer is for the city of Genova as a whole, for its people, families, economic activities, its political authorities in this time of grief and research of what caused the collapse.

“We pray for the relaunching of ‘normal’ social and economic life in the city after such a tragedy. It is essential that what happened will be accounted for and responsibilities will be ascertained so that tragedies like this will no longer happen.”

They also included how it is a reminder of the urgency of proclaiming the…

The annual monsoon rains were already under way in Kerala when it was hit by torrential downpours beginning on 8th August.

The rains have decreased substantially and meteorologists are expecting light-to-moderate rain in the coming days.

Thousands of people have left Kerala’s relief camps over the past two days, heading home to check on damage and begin the long process of cleaning up.

“There was sludge and muck nearly up to my knee,” Abdullah Aliyar said.

The 65-year-old, who has been living with his family at a relief camp for more than a week, returned briefly to his nearby home on Monday to find it uninhabitable and without drinking water or electricity.

For now, the family of five will remain at Union Christian College, a large campus on high ground just outside Kochi.

Volunteers reach out to stranded people with food supplies in a flooded area in Chengannur in the southern state of Kerala, India, Sunday, Aug.19, 2018

It is one of more than 3,000 relief camps created amid the havoc of the floods.

Volunteers at the camp estimate that up to 10,000 people were jammed into the schools’ buildings.

“People are going home or to their relatives’ homes,” said K.H. Shahabas, a local elected official who has been working in the camp since it was created.

He said thousands of people poured into the college a few…