VICTIMS: THE FATHER of a woman abused by a priest in
the Diocese of Cloyne backed a call by an American canon
lawyer for senior administrators in the Catholic Church who conceal
abuse to be prosecuted.
Jack O’Donnell, whose late daughter Maeve
made a complaint to Bishop John Magee that she was abused while a
teenager by a Cloyne priest, supported the call by Fr Tom Doyle for
members of the hierarchy to be jailed for covering up abuse.
“I
agree with Fr Doyle – until such time as some senior figure in the
church hears a prison door clang shut behind him, then the cover-ups and
the concealment will continue. Anyone engaging in a cover-up should be
prosecuted and punished,” said Mr O’Donnell.
Mr O’Donnell said he
believed the Commission of Investigation Report into the Catholic
Diocese of Cloyne captured well the concealment and failure by Bishop
John Magee and his child protection delegate, Msgr Denis O’Callaghan, to
address the problem.
“To my mind, they should both be prosecuted .
. . They helped hide the abuse and are as culpable as the priests who
committed the abuse,” he said.
Mr O’Donnell said he did not
believe senior administrators appreciated the horror perpetrated on
children and teenagers by abusive priests and he sadly did not believe
that they would ever understand the hurt caused because of their
mindset.
“At every layer, at every level, there’s collusion – it’s
bred into them or trained into them. They become homogenised like
zombies – this idea that ‘united we stand’. And no one, or at least very
few, are willing to put their head above the parapet and say it’s
wrong.”
Mr O’Donnell said he believed that while the commission
was not an inquiry into the abuse but rather into the diocesan handling
of complaints, it was nonetheless an important report for the victims of
abuse.
“The more I read the report, the more impressed I am with
it and it’s important because it vindicates the victims and the people
who came forward and it shows people that they weren’t telling lies and
it wasn’t their imagination but that it was happening.”