Bishop Christopher Jones of Elphin has admitted that if he had been a bishop thirty or forty years ago, he would have not known how to handle allegations of paedophilia on the part of clergy. Dr Jones said that he was glad he did not have the responsibility of being bishop as he would have been “at sea" personally in the 1970s or 1980s and it was a full decade later before he became aware some adults were sexually attracted to children.
"If I had been operating in the 80s I would have been at sea with this whole thing," he said, adding that he genuinely did not know until much later that there were people who exploited children for sexual pleasure.
"I did not know that kind of thing was going on in society - it was never discussed in Maynooth, not even in the text books,” the bishop explained.
“When psychologists and psychiatrists were asked for their advice in the '80s and early '90s, they were told you can send this man away for a few months for treatment and you can re-appoint him.”
Back then, Bishop Jones continued, it was not only people like bishops and priests who did not know what to do, but psychologists and psychiatrists, who were “the professionals", did not know either.
He said that he had been "shocked and embarrassed" by what abuse victims had revealed, remarking, "you have no idea what it is like for a priest or a bishop to walk out to a congregation the morning after the report is published, the embarrassment, the shame, that our colleagues have carried out such horror and such crimes."
Bishop Jones asked people to be patient in awaiting a considered response from Pope Benedict and not dismiss his statement after meeting Irish bishops as his last word on the matter.
"Give him a chance to respond to what he has heard from us and to respond to the people who have suffered so much," Dr Jones pleaded.
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