DECISIONS TAKEN by the church in previous decades have proved “disastrously wrong and terribly unhelpful”, a senior bishop has admitted.Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor Donal McKeown called for a full and widespread investigation into all claims of abuse, adding: “Whatever the truth is, it has got to come out. And the sooner it comes out, the better and we have got to handle the truth because it is the only way for people to get any sort of healing.”
He said the church in the North was following a practice of full disclosure to the civil authorities of all suspected cases of criminal activity.
However, in the Republic he understood there was no such civil obligation to report these cases to the Garda or the HSE.
“The church is well ahead of what the civil requirements are in the Republic. We have been quite clear on an episcopal level from the mid-1990s that everything goes to the police. They decide if it’s serious or not,” he said.
Abuse was routinely swept under the carpet by a range of institutions 20 years ago, he said.
“We know from high-profile cases in our own jurisdiction, where schools sought to hide accusations of child abuse. I’m quite sure it was a prevalent element in most of our culture.”
Denying this was an attempt to play down the significance of not reporting abuse from as long ago as the 1970s, Dr McKeown said Cardinal Brady had admitted the “disastrous effects of his inaction at that stage”.
Cardinal Brady knew he made a mistake in relation to the way he dealt with two children in 1975, Dr McKeown said.
“The effects have been disastrous for some people and he [Cardinal Brady] knows that. He used the word ‘ashamed’ in St Patrick’s Cathedral on St Patrick’s Day and I think there’s a huge recognition now that truth has to be the first thing. We have to find a way of admitting our truth and recognising that repentance is possible at all stages no matter what mistakes we have made.”
He denied Dr Brady had to resign as a symbol of a fresh start by the church.
Meanwhile, a woman abused by a priest in the late 1990s and who received compensation from the church said she didn’t believe Cardinal Brady should resign.
The woman told radio station U105 : “I don’t see it being of any advantage to people for him to resign simply because he has proven to me over the last few months that he has taken some action. Over the last few months I can’t deny that Cardinal Brady has been proactive in trying to move this forward, and has instigated a canonical trial now to take place for there to be an investigation into this priest,” she added.
“I just wish it hadn’t taken so long for this to happen.”
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