Church braced for new abuse scandal

The Catholic Church is facing further scandal as the fourth major report into clerical sex abuse is published this afternoon.

Long-awaited findings from an inquiry into the handling of complaints in the Cloyne Diocese in Co Cork follow two years of investigations and the report runs to 400 pages.

The inquiry looked into sample allegations against 19 priests between 1996 and 2009 after the Church's own guidelines on safeguarding children were introduced.

It was launched in January 2009 following an outcry over a damning review of child protection policies in the diocese by the Church's own watchdog, the National Board for Safeguarding Children, which outlined inadequate and dangerous practices.

Bishop John Magee, a former Vatican aide and the only cleric to serve as personal secretary to three popes, was head of Cloyne at the time. 

He resigned from duties in March last year as pressure mounted over the inquiry and his running of affairs in the diocese.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter and Children's Minister Frances Fitzgerald are expected to give their response to the findings before Archbishop Dermot Clifford, who took over the running of Cloyne in 2009, reacts to the scandal.

The Church has faced three other inquiries into clerical abuse in the Ferns Diocese in Wexford, the Dublin Archdiocese, and in State and Church-run institutions.

Women who were forced to live in Magdalene Laundries run by nuns have also been piling pressure on the Government for an inquiry into their treatment.

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