Pope Francis arrived in Ireland on Saturday on the first papal visit to the majority Roman Catholic nation in almost 40 years amid one of the worst sexual abuse scandals the Church has yet faced.

In a relatively subdued reception compared to other papal visits, the Pontiff was greeted at the Dublin Airport by Ireland's Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney with his wife and three young daughters, who gave him a bouquet, CNN reported. The Pope, 81, was expected to meet victims of clerical sex abuse later in the day. He will also meet President Michael Higgins and Indian-origin Prime Minister Leo Varadkar during the 32-hour visit, which falls just a few days after the release of a Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing decades of clerical pedophilia and coverups.