The Interim Guidance on 'Leave from Sacred Ministry' will be implemented early in the New Year, according to the chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC).
The guidelines have already been signed off by the Irish Missionary Union and the Conference of Religious of Ireland, two of the three co-sponsoring bodies of the NBSCCC.
The bishops’ conference, which is the third body, announced, following the conclusion of their winter General Meeting in Maynooth last Wednesday, that representatives of the NBSCCC and the bishops had “discussed the complex and sensitive issue of leave from sacred ministry.”
The bishops said the National Board would, in the light of the discussions, “finalise interim guidelines” that will be approved for use for a period of one year, and then reviewed.
NBSCCC Chief executive, Ian Elliot, told ciNews that the bishops have asked for some small amendments to be made to the language in some parts of the Interim Guidance and when this has been done they will approve it.
There is a meeting later this month at which the representatives of CORI and the IMU along with the four archbishops will meet, Mr Elliot confirmed.
“The final draft will be signed off at that stage and will be issued after that. It will be implemented on an agreed date in the New Year and will be issued with the endorsement of the members of Coimirce (NBSCCC).”
He added, “I would expect this to be early in January.”
Asked about the nature of the guidelines, Ian Elliot told ciNews that they set out an approach that may be followed when asking a priest to step aside.
“It is not proscriptive, but allows for each case to be assessed and decided upon on its own merits,” he explained.
He confirmed, “The matter of informing parishioners of the fact that a priest has been made the subject of an allegation is set out in the guidance.” However, he added that the suggested approach “is to work on the basis of agreement with the respondent.”
The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) has expressed serious concern over the guidelines publicly naming any priest facing an accusation of sexual abuse, as some priests may subsequently be found innocent.
Responding, the NBSCCC chief said, “Throughout the document emphasis is placed on the importance of acting in a way that communicates that someone is innocent until proven otherwise.”
Leaked details of the draft guidelines published in the Sunday Business Post newspaper suggest that the proposals will also place the onus on accused priests to produce evidence to disprove an allegation in order to have the allegation classed as unfounded.
Priests may also have to wait for the conclusion of an internal church investigation, which will follow a civil investigation, before they can be allowed return to ministry.
This would mean falsely accused priests would face even greater delays in having the restrictions on their ministry lifted.
Fr Tony Flannery, spokesman for the Association of Catholic Priests, told ciNews that ACP members would be “very unhappy” with these proposals if they were to go ahead in their current form.
He said the ACP, which represents over 600 priests, would be “uneasy” about guidelines that appeared to presume that a priest was “guilty until proven innocent” and which put “the onus on the priest to prove his innocence.”
He added, “Our legal advice has highlighted that this kind of position violates the basic and fundamental principles of natural justice and fair procedure.”
According to Ian Elliot, the article in the Sunday Business Post last weekend, “did not give a fair impression of the content of the Guidance in that a great deal of attention has been paid to trying to be as balanced and fair as possible.”
He added that the NBSCCC had “consulted widely on it for over two years and the current draft is number 19.”
“In my view it will help greatly in achieving a more uniform and consistent practice across all of the dioceses and the Church as a whole in Ireland,” he said.
The Interim Guidance is aimed at achieving a more uniform and consistent practice across all of the dioceses and the Church as a whole in Ireland.
At present, there is no agreed and standardised procedure on how bishops or heads of religious congregations should handle the enforcement of leave of a priest accused of abuse.
Procedures vary from diocese to diocese.
“We have tried very hard to be fair and just at all times whilst at the same time maintaining an appropriate focus on protecting the vulnerable in the Church”, the chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding said.