An international expert on child safeguarding has appealed to Irish
Church authorities to put their pastoral instincts before legal advice
and urged Catholics to support and encourage their bishops and religious
leaders to move in the right direction.
Dr Monica Applewhite, who has advised Church leaders all across the
world on how to respond to the scandals, said she was also hopeful that a
national day of prayer could help to bring reconciliation and renewal
to the Church in Ireland.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Dr Applewhite, who was recently in
Ireland advising the independent National Board for Safeguarding
Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC), said that ''initiatives to
create and maintain transparency should not be construed in any way as
opposed or against the Catholic Church.
''Those of us who love the Church in spite of its failings are the
people who most desire systems of accountability -- so that faith and
trust in the Church can be restored in a manner that is both legitimate
and sustainable over time.''
However, she said: ''It saddens me that there are still leaders in
the Church who elect to follow the advice of lawyers rather than
listening to their own pastoral instincts or hearing the encouragement
of the faithful to embrace a new era of accountability and openness.
''I believe we are at that tipping point in the Irish Church. The
time has come for every leader within the Irish Church to choose where
he or she stands -- who will emerge for transparency and change and who
will stay in hopes of maintaining the status quo? One can no longer sit
on the fence in Ireland, those days are long gone,'' she said.
Dr Applewhite also added: ''It is essential that we all support and
encourage movement in the right direction when we see it. Leaders are
human and if every move they make is met with punishment and criticism,
they ultimately slip into a kind of helplessness and just quit trying."
''Those of us interested in the promise of change have to find ways
to shed light on the positive initiatives so that energy and hope for
the future are not lost,'' she said.