IRELAND
Irish Independent
ONLY two drastic initiatives by the Catholic bishops can help restore their lost credibility and regain their moral authority from decades of cover-ups of paedophile and sexually deviant priests.
Action in light of the Ferns Report and the ongoing revelations in the media of similar widespread abuses in Dublin, Derry and the west would have to be bold.
The first move would entail a collective offer of resignations by all the present members of the Irish Hierarchy, inclusive even of those more recently appointed such as Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin who are advising the adoption of a more enlightened policy approach.
This unprecedented step would be based on the principle of collective responsibility for their governance of the institutional Irish Church, even though in canon law each bishop in the 26 dioceses is sovereign in his own ecclesiastical bailiwick, subject only to Rome.