BishopAccountability.org
	Connell Opens Hornet's Nest By Margaret Kennedy Irish Independent February 4, 2008 http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/connell-opens-hornets-nest-1280828.html I WRITE from England where I run a clergy sexual abuse support group, MACSAS (www.macsas.org.uk ). Many who contact us are Irish, as am I. Desmond Connell has opened a hornet's nest. By seeking 'secrecy' over documents he tells us many things: that many in the hierarchy still think child abuse files are 'privileged'; that when a State inquiry is ongoing then 'secrecy' and 'privilege' must be enforced; that the hierarchy is more important than children who were sexually abused, raped and sodomised; that the hierarchy needs 'protection'; that there is something to hide; that someone is paying for all this (who?); that closure for victims, if there is such a thing, is not as important as the good name of Desmond Connell; that there are files in the first place (no more telling us they are lost or not available). It tells us that survivors should go away and stop bothering the good gentlemen in the hierarchy. It tells us that the hierarchy have the money to fight big cases and would rather do so than pay this money to survivors' groups. What a total travesty of justice; what a waste of money; what shame for the Church (for I don't believe this is an 'individual' decision to go to court but the Church's).
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