A YEAR after publication of the Murphy report, the Catholic
Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, has said the church in Ireland
had become self-centred and had let itself reach a position “beyond
what is legitimate”.
“I see more clearly that the catastrophic
manner in which the abuse was dealt with was a symptom of a deeper
malaise within the Irish church,” Dr Martin said.
“The church in
Ireland had allowed itself to drift into a position where its role in
society had grown beyond what is legitimate. It acted as a world apart.
It became self-centred. It felt that it could be forgiving of abusers in
a simplistic manner and rarely empathised with the hurt of children.”
He
made the comments in a lengthy statement posted on the Dublin
archdiocesan website, dublindiocese.ie, to mark the first anniversary of
the Murphy report, published on November 26th, 2009.
He said the
church had “also deluded itself about the faith of Irish people. It
failed to recognise what radical evangelisation of its structures and of
its people actually meant. It spoke of renewal but really did not
change. It failed adequately to recognise that renewal demands
conversion.”
Looking to the future, he said “we need to sustain
our robust child safeguarding norms and practices. They will, however,
only work in the context of a renewed church.”
That church was
“not just an elite of the perfect. Many people with little education
have a deeper insight into the message of Jesus Christ than some learned
theologians or bishops,” he said.
One year on, he said: “I
unequivocally repeat what I said on publication of the report: ‘the
Archdiocese of Dublin failed to recognise the theft of childhood which
survivors endured and the diocese failed in its responses to [survivors]
when they had the courage to come forward, compounding the damage done
to their innocence. For that no words of apology will ever be
sufficient’.”
He added: “The diocese failed not just in its
responses to victims and their families. It failed itself and it failed
society by trying to keep the evidence within its own structures.
“I
repeat again what I said one year ago: ‘The sexual abuse of a child is
and always was a crime in civil law; it is and always was a crime in
canon law; it is and always was grievously sinful. The investigation of
crime within society is the competence of An Garda Síochána’.”
He
noted that “many survivors hoped the publication of the Murphy report
would bring them finally to some sort of closure regarding their
horrific experience. For many this has sadly not been so.
“The
hurt done to a child through sexual abuse can last a lifetime. That hurt
can very quickly erupt again as further stories of abuse emerge or
through insensitive comments or actions by church authorities.”
For
his own part, he said that “in my encounters with survivors I have
encountered insight into faith which leaves me humbled. But perhaps
humility is not the worst starting point for renewal of the church and
recognition of past wrongs.”
SIC: IT/IE