At midnight Mass last Christmas, following on the recommendations of the report on the handling of clerical sexual abuse in the Diocese of Cloyne, I assured you, the people of the Diocese, that early in the New Year I would give an account to you of all the work that has been undertaken on this critically important issue.I wish to address this crucially important matter with you again to-day.
Since that time, significant developments have taken place. A number of meetings have been held involving the Diocese, the National Board for Safeguarding Children, the Gardaí, and the HSE to review both current allegations and general communications between all of these agencies.
Training for child protection representatives in each parish of the Diocese is ongoing. We are also revising our procedures and structures to make sure they are in line with the new national guidelines published during this past week.
You may be aware that on January 7th last the government decided to ask the Commission of Investigation into the Dublin Archdiocese to carry out an examination of the operation of practices and policies in relation to child protection in this Diocese.
At that time I stated I would give every possible cooperation to the Commission in carrying out its task.
This, I came to realise, will entail quite an amount of work for me and so, last week, I asked the Diocesan Vicars Forane to confer the Sacrament of Confirmation in their respective Deaneries this year, and I want to wish all the children and families involved in Confirmation this year God's blessing.
I am conscious of the fact that, as I have to give so much of my time and energy to the task ahead, conducting the normal administration of the Diocese, in all its aspects, would prove to be very difficult.
Therefore, as you may have heard from media reports earlier today, on February 4th last I requested the Holy See to appoint an Apostolic Administrator for the Diocese. The Apostolic Nuncio announced today that the Holy Father has acceded to my request and has appointed Archbishop Dermot Clifford as Apostolic Administrator for the Diocese of Cloyne.
This means that the governance of the Diocese has now been transferred to Archbishop Clifford and that he has been given all the powers and duties of the Bishop of Cloyne. I retain the title of Bishop of Cloyne and I will dedicate my full time to the matter of the Inquiry. I shall certainly give Archbishop Clifford every support and assistance and shall keep him in my daily Masses and prayers. I ask you to do likewise. I am grateful to the Holy Father for the appointment of Archbishop Dermot Clifford as Apostolic Administrator of Cloyne.
I ask you to join with me as we continue to remember in our prayers any persons who have been so wrongly abused by priests of this Diocese.
+John Magee
Bishop of Cloyne
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Sotto Voce
(Source: DOC)