CORK AND ROSS: THE DIOCESE of Cork and Ross substantially met the main standards set down by the church in terms of protecting children, the National Board for Safeguarding Children found (NBSC).Cork and Ross had fully met 42 of the 47 standards set down by the Catholic Church in its guidance document published in 2009 while it had partially met the remaining five standards, the NBSC found.
“I welcome the positive outcome to this report and its recommendations which will further enhance our safeguarding service,” said Bishop John Buckley yesterday.
“The review will be a source of assurance to the people of the diocese and a confirmation the diocese is taking its obligations in relation to child protection very seriously.”
According to Cork and Ross child protection officer Cleo Yates, two of the remaining five standards have already been met since the audit was carried out in March and the remaining three will be met by the end of the year.
The NBSC report noted that 26 priests had been the subject of allegations in the diocese since 1975. The NBSC team reviewed the diocesan files on 18 of these who were alive at the time of the review, including four with convictions.
Of these 18, three had been laicised, including two who had had convictions for child sex abuse, while a further five were either completely out of ministry or are on restricted, or supervised, ministry, the NBSC report noted.
A further seven of these 18 had retired, including one who was convicted of child sex abuse, while a further three had returned to active ministry having been out of ministry while concerns about them were being investigated.
Commending the diocese for its preparation of the files, the NBSC did express concern regarding the paucity of information provided to Cork and Ross by a number of British dioceses regarding some priests retiring from the UK to Cork.
The report noted that it examined the files of five priests who had either retired to, or lived within, the Diocese of Cork and Ross – none of whom had any allegations relating to them in the diocese – but who had been the subject of concern elsewhere.
Three of these five have convictions for the abuse of children in the UK and, while one of them had since been laicised, the NBSC report noted that their home dioceses in the UK had not been as open as was necessary when the men had retired into Cork and Ross.
“Information on the status of these priests was not as forthcoming as it should have been from their home dioceses [in the UK] which resulted in a lack of awareness of potential risk,” the report added.
The National Board for Safeguarding Children audit also noted that, while Cork and Ross’s current practice in terms of notifying gardaí and the Health Service Executive of any concerns or complaints was excellent, there had been some delays in the past in notifying the statutory authorities.