The Kiltegan
fathers religious congregation has been heavily criticised in the
latest tranche of reviews on child protection carried out by the Catholic Church.
The Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) said, where St Patrick’s Missionary Society,
Kiltegan, was concerned that “abuse that has been identified outside
the Irish region has not in every case given rise to an appropriate and
robust response.”
The reviews which also include six Catholic diocese and the Christian Brothers this morning, have been generally positive where the dioceses are concerned.
However the NBSC reviews has been very
critical of past handling of allegations in most instances, particularly
by the St Patrick’s Missionary Society based at Kiltegan, Co Wicklow and of the Christian Brothers.
It
has disclosed that 325 Christian Brothers faced a total of 870 child
abuse allegations most of which related to the 1950s, 60s, 70s period.
All had been reported to the gardaí and health authorities with 12
Brothers convicted in the courts. The NBSC reviewers found that the
Christian Brothers’ initial response to reporting allegations to the
statutory agencies “was not systematic and was inadequate.
”They also
found that “in the vast majority of cases reviewed, the Christian
Brothers did not have direct contact with the alleged victim and the
files developed contained significant correspondence between legal
representatives of the parties involved.”
This, they said, “was to the detriment of pastoral care and restorative practices, which the Province could provide.”
However
the reviewers also met with representatives of the HSE and said they
were “impressed by the positive working relationship between this agency
and the Christian Brothers.”
They go on to say that their review
“clearly mirrors the historically progressive understanding the
Christian Brothers have developed of child protection issues. It also
reflects the positive attributes of their work and the extensive
positive experiences they have of working with young people.“
For
their part the Christian Brothers have pointed out that they have
received juse one allegation against a member of the congregation in the
past decade with a total of ninereceived this past 23 years.
Where
St Patrick’s Missionary Society is concerned, it has received 50
allegatoins made against 14 members . All had been reported to police
and one member convicted in the courts.
In a
fairly damning observation about this congregation the NBSC reviewers
said that “abuse that has been identified outside the Irish region has
not in every case given rise to an appropriate and robust response.”
They said it was “ important to emphasise that all children deserve the
same respect and attention regardless of where they are geographically
located, or of their ethnicity. The reviewers are concerned that this
has not always been reflected in the practice of the SPMS (St Patrick’s
Missionary Society), as detailed in the case files.” It gives examples
to illustrate the point.
They also say that they
“were not satisfied that canonical sanctions against many of the priests
who are known to have abused children were being sought as a matter of
course.”
The review also says that “there has been
confusion in the SPMS with regard to confidentiality. It was reported
to the reviewers that historically, the interpretation of
‘confidentiality’ had in effect been ‘secrecy’. As a consequence, there
was real reluctance to share information about safeguarding matters in
the Society.”
It says “two key principles apply. Firstly, that
all children should be protected from harm regardless of where they
reside in the world. Secondly, those who harm children should be held
accountable for their actions and the Church as a whole, if seriously
committed to the safeguarding of children, needs to remove from the
clergy all those who have caused harm to a child.”
It
continued that “neither of these principles is assisted by a failure to
share relevant information with the appropriate authorities both within
the Church and outside. It is surprising and disappointing to find that
the penalties that exist within the code of Canon Law within the Church
have not been applied to the members of the Society who have committed
serious delicts.”
Fr Seamus O’Neill, St Patrick’s
Missionary Society leader said in response to these findings that it has
“renewed its commitment to robust child protection standards.” It
“accepts fully the findings of the review” and “apologised
‘unreservedly’ on behalf of the Kiltegans to all those who have been
abused by members of our Society and to their families”.
In the Archdiocese of Armagh the review there has found that the Catholic primate Cardinal Sean Brady
“provided leadership and has set out to create an open, participatory
and transparent process.”
In what is a positive review it found that 16
priests there had faced 36 allegations of abuse.
All allegations had
been reported to police with with one priest convicted in the courts.
In the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly it found that Archbishop Dermot Clifford
was “direct in his communication and shows leadership as well as giving
support for all matters relevant to safeguarding children.” Archbishop
Clifford, it said “ promptly removed priests from public ministry,
usually within days of the allegations being brought to his attention.”
Meanwhile it said “responses from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in the Vatican, to Archbishop Clifford have been slow, accounting for the delays in processing cases canonically.”
In
Achonry diocese 11 priests faced 15 allegatoins with none convicted in
the courts. The reviewers confirmed “that commendable efforts have been
made by the diocese since early 2008 to establish and maintain a viable
and secure management system for information relating to safeguarding.”
However it found that “there had also been little evidence of any
systematic process for filing or managing information about allegations
relating to child abuse in the diocese prior to 2008 .”
There was, they
said, “an absence of appropriate response by the previous bishop to
allegations of risk, or to victims.”
In Down and
Connor 42 priests have faced 59 allegations, all reported to police.
Three priests have been convicted.
In Kerry 21 priests faced 67
allegations with one convicted in the courts, while in Ossory 14 priest
have faced 27 allegations with two convicted in the courts.