Pope Francis has met with eight survivors of clerical, religious and institutional abuse durng his visit to Ireland.

The visit was confirmed by the Vatican.

The Pontiff spent an hour and a half with the survivors 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.

At the World Meeting of Families yesterday, she said there's still denial within the church about the scale of clerical abuse and called for "every rotten apple" to be removed.

Other abuse survivors who attended the meeting included Reverend Patrick McCafferty, Reverend Joe McDonald, councillor Damien O'Farrell and Bernadette Fahy in addition to 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.