The “distressing, harrowing and devastating” abuse revealed in religious-run schools has put faith to “the test yet again”, Bishop Brendan Leahy has said.
In a letter yesterday to parishes in the Diocese of Limerick in response to the publication of the Scoping Inquiry into religious-run schools, Dr Leahy said the abuse had “destroyed the lives of victims” and “overwhelmed many in the church”.
“What should have been places of sacred trust and care turned out to be locations of nightmarish horrors,” he said and added: “We must see those who abused for what they are. Perpetrators of the most horrific and vile crimes that destroyed young lives.”
Stressing that “justice must be brought to bear against this evil”, Dr Leahy, however, fell short of explicitly calling on religious orders to contribute to any redress scheme for survivors.
The inquiry offers, he said, expert opinions regarding both causes as well as processes and next steps that can help in moving forward. He also expressed solidarity with priests and lay people surrounded by “a legitimate chorus of lament and criticism” and with those in religious orders who have “lived their life of vocation with love and kindness”.
“They are suffering the experience of seeing so much good work done by their congregations to which they committed their lives, now being emptied before their eyes,” he said.
In his letter, Dr Leahy said: “Not a single case of abuse is understandable.”
Praying for those who reported the 2,395 allegations of sexual abuse by 884 abusers in 308 schools run by religious orders, he said the destruction of innocence and of lives is “beyond comprehension”.
However, popular cleric Fr Tony Flannery has said “the damage done by traditional Catholic sexual teaching is a part explanation for what we are learning now about clerical sexual abuse in schools”.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Fr Flannery, who was censured in 2012 and removed from ministry for his views on female priests, said the “suppression of feelings, thoughts and desires, which featured strongly, and still does, in Catholic sexual teaching, and compulsory celibacy, is detrimental to mature human development”.
According to the Redemptorist priest, the findings of the Scoping Inquiry report show there is something “seriously dysfunctional in the clerical world in order for this to happen in such a widespread way”.
He said the revelations make it even more apparent than ever that there is an urgent need for the church to review its teaching on sexuality and its practice of compulsory celibacy for priests.
He believes there are aspects of church teaching and practice that are contributing to this behaviour by some priests, and that urgently needs to be looked at by the relevant church authorities.
Rather than just condemning the abuse, he said he was “trying to explain what might be causing it, so that something can be done to correct it”.
“In the meantime, all the sympathetic statements and heartfelt apologies from the Vatican or Bishops’ Conference are little more than empty words,” Fr Flannery said.