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	Pope Admonishes Irish Clergy over Child Abuse By Nick Squires The Age February 18, 2010 http://www.theage.com.au/world/pope-admonishes-irish-clergy-over-child-abuse-20100217-odug.html VATICAN CITY -- POPE Benedict has told Irish bishops that priests involved in the sexual abuse of children were guilty of "heinous crimes" and "grave sins". The Irish Catholic Church's covering-up of decades of paedophile abuse had caused a crisis that had led to "a breakdown in trust in the church's leadership", Benedict XVI told the 24 bishops during an unprecedented two-day summit at the Vatican. He said they would have to work hard to restore "spiritual and moral credibility" after two reports last year documented abuse and cover-ups in church-run schools and orphanages over 50 years. The Pope and senior Vatican officials had "examined the failure of Irish church authorities for many years to act effectively in dealing with cases involving the sexual abuse of young people by some Irish clergy". Vatican observers said that it was unprecedented for all the serving bishops of one country to be hauled in front of the Pope to discuss such a crisis. The statement seemed unlikely, however, to satisfy victims of abuse who had called for more resignations of senior clerics involved in covering up decades of sexual abuse of children and young people by priests. Even as the Vatican talks were under way, John Kelly, the founder of a victims' group called Irish Survivors of Child Abuse, wrote in a letter to the Pope made public in London: "The secular powers in Ireland appear paralysed to bring to civil justice some of those who carried out acts of horrific abuse as well as those who assisted by acts of omission or even outright collusion after the fact. "In addition the religious orders to whom those persons belong remain intact and continue to operate within and outside the state," the letter said. Four Irish bishops have offered their resignations since the scandal, but the Pope has accepted only one. The Vatican meeting came after a report last November that said the church in Ireland had concealed child abuse in Dublin for almost 30 years to 2004. The talks were a prelude to the publication of a pastoral letter from the Pope to Irish Catholics, which, the statement said, would be issued some time in the next few weeks. The document will be the first papal utterance of its kind dealing specifically with paedophilia, Vatican experts say. At a press conference after the meeting with the Pope, five of the Irish bishops insisted that they recognised that the church had betrayed tens of thousands of children in its care and promised to implement "significant measures" to ensure that the abuse never happened again. They said the two days of talks with the 82-year-old Pope had been "clear and frank" but dismissed suggestions that they had been subjected to a dressing-down. "It was very, very painful for him to hear of these stories of abuse first-hand," said the Bishop of Ferns, Denis Brennan. "We all know that there's great anger out there and it's richly deserved. We accept that and we understand it." The failure to tackle decades of child abuse by priests had created a rupture between the church and Irish society, he said. "We are determined to regain the trust of the Irish people but we know it won't be quick or easy."
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