The Catholic Church abuse scandal in Ireland: two steps forward, one step back by Pope Francis?

Purpose Ireland is viewed as the shining base for Catholicism. That image is shattered as survivors revealed the abuse in the Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby Homes, and sexual abuse by priests. This study aims to examine image repair efforts by the Pope during his August 2018 visit. Design/methodology/approach Examined against the Letter of His Holiness released days earlier, this study evaluates all the Pope's speeches during his visit to Ireland using the image repair theory (Benoit and Pang, 2008) as its theoretical lens. Findings Pope Francis used the evasion of responsibility strategy to address the Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby Homes scandal and denial, corrective action and mortification for sex abuse crisis. Research limitations/implications Addresses call by Ferguson et al. (2018) to examine the consistency and effectiveness of strategies. Practical implications Beyond rhetoric, stakeholders would be looking to organizational leaders to provide relief and concrete steps to recover from their pain. Originality/value A leader's narratives represent the organization's narratives; thus, insights from this study can help leaders plan what they should say when conducting image repair. It is not just their own reputations that are on the line but, in this case, it is also the reputations of the people they represent