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	Catholic Church Praised for Its Progress on Child Protection By John Cooney Irish Independent October 24, 2009 http://www.independent.ie/national-news/catholic-church-praised-for-its-progress-on-child-protection-1923548.html THE Catholic Church in Ireland has made greater progress in the past two years than in the previous two decades in safeguarding children from paedophile clerics, its independent child protection "enforcer" claimed yesterday. In his first major address since his appointment two years ago as chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding Children, Ian Elliott, a Presbyterian from the North, hit out at cover-ups which led to four state inquiries. Speaking in Cork yesterday to the Association of Social Workers, Mr Elliott accepted that the Ferns Report in Co Wexford; the Ryan Report into systematic abuse in industrial schools; and the forthcoming reports into the Dublin and Cloyne dioceses were necessary because the Irish Catholic Church was guilty of placing the needs of itself and the clergy before those of the vulnerable child. "Instead of confronting the problem and dealing with it, it has on occasions mismanaged its response and lost sight of the critical need to protect the child," Mr Elliott said. "If you protect the child, you will also protect the Church. However, if you focus on protecting the Church and abandon the child, you will cause major harm to the Church. Problem "This simple but vitally important piece of learning can be drawn directly from any objective review of the recent history of the problem of clerical abuse within the Catholic Church in Ireland. "The child should always come first." Although it was described as a single monolithic body, the Irish Church was better understood as a single communion with close to two hundred different constituent elements, Mr Elliott explained. "There is no one person who is resident in Ireland and holds the authority to direct all the various parts of the body to act in a particular way," said Mr Elliott. But Mr Elliott identified as an important step forward in national unity the signing by 184 power centres -- diocesan bishops, heads of missionary congregations, religious orders and prelatures -- of an agreement known as a "memorandum of understanding" to implement guidelines issued by his board last February for application in both the Republic and the North, as well as in canon (church) law practices. Mr Elliott also urged church authorities to move away from a reactive response to a much more strategic and proactive approach. "If nothing else, I would believe that this vital lesson has been learnt by those in authority within the Church and from reflecting on experiences over the last two years," Mr Elliot added.
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