UNLESS the imminent Lenten pastoral letter from Pope Benedict XVI to the people of Ireland is more specific about his response to the scandal of clerical sex abuse of children in this country, its victims will remain deeply unhappy with the attitude of the Vatican to their plight, as the statement issued after last month’s historic two-day meeting between the Irish bishops and the Pope in Rome gave them scant hope of real closure to their ordeal.The very fact that such an unprecedented meeting had been called in the first place must have given the victims grounds for optimism that the Holy See was about to address the Irish situation with a seriousness heretofore not seen and that Pope Benedict would take a pro-active role in encouraging the bishops to take the decisive action necessary to bring closure to this most shameful and reprehensible chapter in Church history.
Instead, all they got was a very general statement, which delivered a routine condemnation of the ‘heinous’ nature of the sexual abuse of children, but contained no acknowledgement of, or credible apology for, the church’s part in compounding the abuses perpetrated by moving pedophile priests from place to place to protect them from having to answer to the law of the land.
It also implied that the Irish bishops should clean up their own mess.
Obviously, people’s expectations of a more decisive outcome were too high and the failure of the Holy See to be seen to step in as truly honest brokers was a crushing blow to all those who expected, at least, this much from the highest moral authority in the Roman Catholic Church.
It certainly did little or nothing to stem the flow of worshippers away from the church, which followed in the wake, firstly, of the revelations of clerical abuse of innocent children and then the confirmation in the various reports, such as Ferns, Ryan and Murphy, of the lengths the hierarchy here went to cover up this abuse.
Representatives of victims’ groups, which met with Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin a few days after his return from Rome, got the impression that he was not as pro-active as he had been, particularly at the time of the release of the Murphy Report, and that his wings had been clipped at the Vatican.
They expressed ‘huge disappointment’ with the meeting and say they observed a ‘very different man’ to the way he was a week earlier in advance of his trip to Rome.
The survivors’ representatives sensed a closing of ranks in the Church and the CEO of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop, in articulating their fears, said: ‘It is now clear that the Church has a strategy in place to deal with this problem.
This strategy does not have a shred of humanity or compassion. It is a process that the Institution Church will follow in its own time.
‘Will it benefit the survivors? I doubt it very much since their requests were not acknowledged after this meeting nor were they acted upon,’ she concluded.
This does not bode well for abuse victims and reflects badly on the Church at a time when it should be going out of its way to make amends for the evil perpetrated by some of its members, mainly on vulnerable innocent children.
The statement from Rome that the problem was not unique to Ireland, implying that victims here would not be getting any special treatment from the Holy See, was disingenuous in the extreme and more like a calculated insult to survivors of abuse, even though it was never intended to be.
Maybe something was lost in translation, but the words rang hollow and cold – trotting out pious platitudes, yet failing to engage in a humane manner with those who needed proper re-assurances that the Church will do the right thing by them.
Archbishop Martin defended the Pope’s approach and promised that ‘other things’ will happen.
And, obviously conscious of the underwhelming public reaction to it, the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, James Moriarty, stated that the Vatican press release should not be viewed as the ‘last word’ on the matter, adding that Pope Benedict’s pastoral letter which is expected in mid‐March is the document to focus on.
He revealed that a draft copy of the pastoral letter was shared with the bishops and that they had an opportunity to offer comments.
‘While taking on board these comments, the pastoral letter will be the Holy Father’s document,’ stated Bishop Moriarty, ‘it is important to emphasise that this process is ongoing and more steps are to follow.’
One would have thought, however, that when addressing wrongdoing, the first step should be a proper apology in mitigation before setting out the steps one intends to take in order to make atonement.
While the Pope’s pastoral letter this month will be an opportunity to tell the Church faithful what he intends to do to make amends to victims, the statement issued after his meeting with the Irish bishops in Rome should have contained nothing less than a fulsome apology to the victims of clerical abuse.
The Pope was also criticised for not meeting victims of abuse, but this was unfair because – we assume – he will do so at some stage privately, away from the glare of the media spotlight.
However, the Holy See missed an opportunity after the meeting with the bishops to, at least, flag some of what they had in mind doing.
This will probably be rectified by the pastoral letter, but the festering resentment that has been apparent for a number of weeks in the interim has not done much for the Church’s tarnished reputation here in Ireland and is the result of a public relations disaster on the part of the Vatican.
All the Irish bishops can do in the meantime is to hope and pray that the Pope’s forthcoming pastoral letter will strike the necessary chord of humanity and demonstrate that the Church is ready and willing to take the decisive steps that are needed to bring closure for survivors of clerical abuse.
Closing ranks and just going down the route of damage limitation at this stage is like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.
The Church needs to engage meaningfully with its flock in a wide-ranging and inclusive manner if it really wants to begin repairing the serious damage done by the abusers in its ranks, compounded by all those in authority who covered up the depravity.
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