Several victims of clerical sexual abuse have added their voices to those of some active laity who have called for the Catholic Church to hold a national 'Day of Repentance' in the aftermath of the reports on abuse. As people come to terms with the shocking revelations of the Ryan Commission report published this week, more than a dozen people in lay leadership roles in the Dublin Archdiocese, mostly in parish councils, have written to The Irish Catholic calling on Church leaders to adopt the idea.
In the letter to this paper the group calls for a liturgy to be organised ''as an expression of sorrow to God for the clerical abuse of children''.
A spokesman for the Catholic hierarchy, speaking to this paper, acknowledged the need for repentance: ''There is a need for humility and repentance. Repentance is an essential part of dealing with the legacy of abuse in the Church and finding the best ways to express it, will be a significant task for all of us,'' he said.
Adding her support, Marie Collins, who was abused as a child in Crumlin Children's Hospital, said: ''there is a lot of merit in the idea of a day of repentance for child abuse''.
However, she added: ''Ordinary Catholics have nothing to repent for. The damage has been done by the abusers and the way it has been handled by the hierarchy and those charged with, handling the abuse, who acted to disastrously.'' she said.
Fr Paddy McCafferty, who was abused by a priest when he was young, also welcomed the idea. ''I first raised the idea in 1999 that the Church needed such a day to repent for the anguish caused by the abuse of children in the Church.''
''The abuse by clerics has a unique spiritual dimension, and it causes spiritual carnage. God is offended by these sins against the innocence who have being robbed of their childhood in such a cruel fashion,'' he said.
''There is a need to heal the historical memory of these crimes,'' Fr McCafferty said adding, ''this has happened in other countries with such liturgies of repentance and I think it would be very helpful in the Irish context, but would have to be done at a pace with which survivors are comfortable.''
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