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	Moral Compass Must Point Towards Justice for Victims By Collette Caddle Irish Independent December 3, 2009 http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/moral-compass-must-point-towards-justice-for-victims-1962289.html There is much in our world today to annoy us. The banks lost all our money and yet we have to rescue them. The councils built on flood plains and people's homes have been destroyed as a result. And as if life wasn't miserable enough, we were robbed of the opportunity to play in the World Cup in South Africa. It was the final straw. We were incensed, furious, livid and we wanted action. Someone should pay. Yet how apathetic is our reaction when we learn that the Catholic Church, instead of protecting our children, put them in danger? Where is the anger, where is the call for action? When did our moral compass become so skewed? I'm not interested in witch hunts but I would like to see justice done and I do want change. Yet the main reactions to the Murphy report are ones of embarrassment, shame, disapproval and a certain acceptance that these things happen. I think the fact that the body involved is the Catholic Church is possibly what's causing the confusion. The Church has been a huge part of our lives for so long that we put up with its failings the way one would put up with the tantrums of a naughty but basically good child. So let's simplify things. Let's take the Church out of the equation. Let me paint a different scenario for you. Your 15-year-old son comes to you and tells you that he was abused by a lay teacher when he was 11. You go to the school principal, who promises to look into the allegation. He does and the teacher admits his guilt. The principal subsequently writes the teacher a reference, arranges for him to move to a different school and that is the end of it. The teacher continues to abuse children and continues to move from school to school without each new employer knowing his full history. When this eventually comes to light, don't you think you would demand at least the dismissal -- not resignation -- of that first principal and a full criminal inquiry? I know I would. Read the full Murphy report. It does not detail occasional mistakes or errors of judgment. It tells a harrowing story of a pattern of behaviour that was endemic within the Church. And the real horror is that it references only a sample from one diocese. But there is nothing peculiar about Dublin or indeed Ireland that would give us hope that this is a sad but isolated incident. This is the tip of the iceberg. I am a practising but flawed Catholic. I have always believed in the Church as a people rather than an institution and I have been blessed to count some wonderful members of the clergy as friends. One such man, a lifelong family friend, visited me last Christmas. We had a lovely afternoon chatting and reminiscing. He joked with my sons, asked about their interests and quizzed them on their Irish. There was a lot of laughter that day. That priest was Fr Dominic Savio Boland. He was the capuchin that was convicted on nine counts of indecent assault in 2001. The first I knew of it was when I read his name in the Murphy report last Thursday. Unlike many of the other cases, the commission felt the Capuchin order acted relatively quickly and properly. They immediately put restrictions in place so that Fr Boland would no longer have access to children. Despite this, he has been in touch with my family on a regular basis and, despite this, he stood in my home last Christmas. How many other families has he visited over the years without the order's knowledge? How many other innocent people have welcomed him into their homes? This would never have happened if Fr Boland's conviction had been public knowledge but it never even made it to the papers. How is that possible? It was 2001, not 50 years ago. I can understand the order's shame and disgust and their need to put the whole sorry business behind them, but by remaining silent, they protected this man. What has he done to deserve this protection? Let's take the Church out of the picture again. How would you feel if a neighbour was sentenced for a crime against children but you were never told of it? How would you feel about his family who had kept his dreadful secret? The order protected Fr Boland, but who was protecting the real Church, ie you and me? Let me remind you, this was one of the few cases where the commission commended the order because the case was handled so much better than others. In most cases, when clergy were found to be abusing, they were moved from parish to parish, inside and outside of Ireland, into unsuspecting communities. In many cases, even their new parish priests were not told of their histories. As such, they were placed in situations where they could easily abuse again and they did. The number of times abusers went on to work in children's homes, hospitals or schools is truly shocking. The number of times known offenders went on to be promoted is beyond belief. And it didn't happen once, or twice, or three times. This was not oversight, it was not ignorance. Yes, these abusers were solely responsible for their own actions. But the Catholic Church is responsible for creating the closed, secret environment that allowed them to. Have I made you feel angry yet? Are you ready to take any action?
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