ANOTHER ROUND of breast-beating by Catholic churchmen over the sexual
abuse of children in their pastoral care has become a source of public
anger, rather than of reassurance.
Apologies and pledges of future
cooperation with civil authorities have lost all credibility following
15 years of foot-dragging and broken promises.
The latest report into
this festering scandal by the Murphy commission demonstrates clearly
that the Government has to assert its authority and ensure primacy of
State law.
This, after all, does not centre on failures in our dark,
secretive past of decades ago; it relates to allegations made in the
recent 1996 to 2009 period.
Thankfully, Ministers Alan Shatter and
Frances Fitzgerald propose to introduce legislation and statutory
changes that will at last protect children and vindicate their rights.
Failure to report sexual abuse of a child or an intellectually disabled
person to the Garda Síochána will be a criminal offence.
Children First
regulations will be put on a statutory basis; agencies working with
children will have to share “soft information” and there will be robust
oversight of child protection services.
Three reports into child
abuse uncovered common themes: extensive clerical predation; concern for
the abuser rather than for the victim by church authorities and denial
and suppression of information.
An audit of these matters by the
Catholic Church’s own National Board for Safeguarding Children – as a
means of identifying and rejecting past unacceptable behaviour – has
been thwarted by some bishops who refused access to their files.
The
Government is now demanding full co-operation and publication of a
report by a set date. Cardinal Seán Brady appears amenable to that.
Catholic
authorities took out insurance against anticipated claims of child
abuse by paedophile priests 23 years ago.
Since then, as scandal has
been piled upon scandal, bishops, archbishops and cardinals – supported
by the Vatican – have engaged in systematic cover-up and relied on canon
law and the concept of “mental reservation” to minimise issues and to
flout the State’s laws.
In the process, they have dismayed and alienated
many of their followers.
In all of this, Vatican authorities have
played a malign, controlling role. When Irish bishops agreed child
protection guidelines in 1996 the document was not approved by Rome.
That encouraged conservative church elements to ignore the guidelines
and to cling to canon law in defence of their reputations and their
assets.
That devious response was reflected by Bishop John Magee’s
actions in preparing a truthful report on clerical abuse for the Vatican
and a false one for diocesan files.
Describing the Vatican’s
reaction to the Irish bishops’ framework document as “entirely
unhelpful”, the Cloyne report claims this gave individual bishops
freedom to ignore the procedures which they had agreed.
This finding
alone necessitates a comprehensive response from Rome.
The many victims
of clerical abuse in Ireland and the church’s followers here, above all,
deserve no less.