THE Pope has made what is being widely interpreted as his first official comments on the child abuse scandal in residential institutions here.However, abuse survivors say the reference in a letter to priests across the world is too vague to have real meaning, with one group calling it a "pathetic" attempt at a statement.
In his letter, issued to announce a Year for Priests, Pope Benedict praises the role of priests and appears to give less than 100 words of the 4,250-word document to the issue of abuse.
He writes: "There are also, sad to say, situations which can never be sufficiently deplored where the Church herself suffers as a consequence of infidelity on the part of some of her ministers. Then it is the world which finds grounds for scandal and rejection."
He continues that what is most helpful to the Church in such cases is "not only a frank and complete acknowledgment of the weaknesses of her ministers" but also the good work of faithful priests.
Vatican commentators have taken the passage to refer to the publication of the Ryan Report here last month, but Christine Buckley of the Aislinn survivors support group said, if it was meant as a definitive statement on the subject, the attempt was "pathetic".
"He doesn’t mention children, or abuse, or Ireland so I would take it with a grain of salt. I do worry though that the language is so vague. If you have the head of the Catholic Church trying to conceal rather than reveal and acknowledge the wrongs done, what sort of example is that giving to his flock of priests?"
Meanwhile, the Labour Party yesterday published a private members bill seeking to amend the legislation that set up the Child Abuse Commission and the Residential Institutions Redress Board.
The bill proposes widening the Redress Board’s responsibility to include survivors who were living abroad and missed the application deadline, who were committed to institutions excluded from the scheme for no clear reason or who were aged up to 21 when they were committed to institutions, as 21 was the legal age when childhood ended for most of the period investigated.
It also proposes scrapping the gagging order which, under threat of imprisonment, prevents survivors speaking about their dealings with the Redress Board and provides for the appointment by the Government of an independent auditor to assess the wealth of the religious orders chiefly responsible for the abuse.
Labour justice spokesman Pat Rabbitte said it was still far from clear what the orders were planning to do about contributing further to the cost of supporting survivors.
"I have not seen anything in writing that forensically sets out what they are proposing to do. They are sorry and they apologise and they accept their contribution was inadequate, but I still don’t know what they are going to do."
The party’s education spokesman, Ruairi Quinn, said the bill reflected the concerns of survivors and the public at large and he urged the Government to adopt it and begin debate on it immediately rather than leave it to linger as an opposition proposal.
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