Ireland Online
December 15, 2009
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/ireland/third-clerical-sex-abuse-inquiry-to-run-until-summer-438408.html
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A third inquiry into clerical child sex abuse by Catholic priests will run until next summer, it was revealed tonight.
The Government has granted investigators until June 30 next year to examine how the Diocese of Cloyne handled allegations against clerics.
A state Commission, which last month exposed sickening abuse and cover-ups by the Catholic hierarchy in the Dublin Archdiocese, was asked to widen its work to include Cloyne.
It had been hoped the investigation, which is looking at secret files in parishes in Co Cork, would be complete in the next few weeks.
But a Government spokesman said: “They (the Commission) simply asked for enough time to complete the investigation.”
Minister for Children Barry Andrews called in the Commission last January after a nationwide audit into the Catholic Church’s adherence to child protection measures.
Bishop of Cloyne John Magee was replaced in March after the review found the diocese had responded inappropriately to sex abuse allegations and had put children at risk.
The Cloyne report, published on December 19 last year, was prepared by the Catholic Church’s independent National Board for Safeguarding Children. It found child protection practices in the diocese were inadequate and in some respects dangerous.
Archbishop of Cashel and Emly Dr Dermot Clifford was asked to assume the powers and duties of the Bishop of Cloyne.
Last month the Commission revealed hundreds of sex abuse complaints in the Dublin Archdiocese were at least mishandled and at worst covered up by senior churchmen and civil authorities, including bishops and gardai.
Pope Benedict is to write to practising Irish Catholics about sex abuse and the Vatican’s response.
It was less than six months after the Ryan report catalogued extensive psychological, physical and sexual abuse in Church-run State institutions over several decades.
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