IRELAND
One in Four
The Irish Times
There is something distasteful about the Diocese of Limerick at the moment, writes Mary Raftery. Following the tragic suicide of clerical sexual abuse victim Peter McCloskey and the public exposure of his suffering, what we have witnessed so far is a frantic damage-limitation exercise.
There was some hope that after the immense child abuse scandals in Ferns and Dublin, the bishops might realise the harm that they themselves were causing by the way they treated people who had revealed the abuse they suffered as children.
It seemed that from Diarmuid Martin in Dublin and Eamon Walsh in Ferns at least there had been an acknowledgment of shortcomings, of denial and of the reliance on legal advice instead of a moral and Christian response.
Peter McCloskey's mother Mary and brother Joseph are in no doubt that had Peter been treated with dignity and compassion by the Diocese of Limerick from the time he revealed his abuse in 2002, he would still be alive today.