Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Martin criticises Connell move as a 'road block'

ARCHBISHOP Diarmuid Martin yesterday described his predecessor's High Court action against the Dublin Child Abuse Commission as a "single road block" he wants toppled.

In a strong criticism of Cardinal Desmond Connell's move, he also spoke of his hope that his work and the work of others to protect children would not be "derailed".

He said he hoped the legal action did not overshadow the work already done in the diocese to stamp out abuse and felt it "would be wrong" if it did.

"My hope is this is a single road block which we can overcome," he said.

He said he was taken aback to hear about the cardinal's legal action.

"He simply called me and told me that his legal advisers had unanimously advised him to go to the High Court," he said.

"He was not able to tell me the details of that, because that was a question that is still a little bit unclear, exactly what the nature of this case is."

He said he had two principal objectives. One was to ensure that "we can get the truth out well" and cooperate with the commission, and the other is to establish good child protection services in the diocese.

"I've put a lot of effort into it and I hope that in no way that's going to be in any way disturbed by what's happened," he said.

"As I said, I put a lot of effort into it. I don't believe that this will be helped by polemics. Let's get obstacles out of the way and move back to what we always wanted.

However, he said it would be wrong for people to feel the Church was trying to hide something by not releasing the documents, as the structures of the commission recognised that "legal privilege is a reality".

He said that was the advice given by lawyers rather than a decision taken by the Church.

One in Four urged the archbishop to insist that the cardinal hand over the documents in the event that his legal challenge is successful.
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