By Thomas Grillo
Boston Herald
June 5, 2010
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20100605cardinal_sean_omalley_prays_for_success_in_irish_trip/
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| Cardinal Sean O’Malley |
Cardinal Sean O’Malley said he prays his work dealing with pedophile priests and their victims in Boston will help Irish dioceses reeling from the clerical sexual-abuse scandal.
“I hope our experience will be helpful as we get to know the Irish situation better and try to help the Holy See have a clearer understanding of what’s happened and what needs to be done,” O’Malley told the Herald yesterday.
O’Malley will be part of a team appointed by Pope Benedict XVI that will travel overseas this fall to investigate predator priests in Ireland’s Catholic institutions. The cardinal said his experience has taught him that transparency is essential and so is listening to victims and their families.
While O’Malley fears that the latest clergy scandal could drive Catholics away from the church, he hopes parishioners see it as a “human problem.”
“The sexual-abuse crisis in Europe has repercussions here because it opens old wounds and brings lots of suffering to our people,” he said. “Our hope is that people will recognize that this is a human problem, not just a problem that exists within the church. The church is trying to deal with it in the best way we can.”
But Barbara Blaine, president and founder of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said O’Malley is not the right choice to help church officials in Ireland.
“We don’t believe that Cardinal O’Malley has taken all the measures that could be taken to help bring about the transparency that he speaks about,” she said. “He has not punished anyone who has been involved in the wrongdoing that went on for decades. All the records about all the predators should be made public and they should be prosecuted.”
In an e-mail response, Terrence Donilon, a spokesman for O’Malley, said: “The cardinal remains committed to instituting high standards and doing everything possible to keep the children and young people of this archdiocese safe. He continues to recognize that, while much has been accomplished, more must be done.”
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