Handling of Abuse Claims Criticised, The Argus, July 16, 2011

Handling of Abuse Claims Criticised

The Argus
July 16, 2011

http://www.argus.ie/breaking-news/national-news/handling-of-abuse-claims-criticised-2823545.html

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has criticised the way abuse claims were handled

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has voiced his anger at revelations about the handling of child sex-abuse allegations in the Diocese of Cloyne.

Speaking to Mass-goers at the city's Pro-Cathedral, he said he was angered at the response, or non-response, by Church authorities to children whose lives were ruptured by abuse.

He said he was also angry that children had been put at risk well after agreed guidelines - backed by all the Irish Bishops - were put in place to safeguard them.

Archbishop Martin told his congregation that individuals in Cloyne, and perhaps elsewhere, placed their own views above child protection seemingly without any second thought.

"Paradoxically, appealing somehow to their own interpretation of Canon Law, they had put themselves even above and beyond the norms which the current Pope himself has promulgated for the entire Church," he said.

Archbishop Martin, the most senior Catholic in the Irish Republic, said much had been done within the church on child protection and that it is a much safer place now than even in the recent past. But he said it was also true the church had not learned lessons.

He said: "Great damage has been done to the credibility of the Church in Ireland. Credibility will only be regained by the Church being more truly what the Church is. Renewal will not be the work of sleek public relations moves."

The Primate said religious culture in Ireland has changed radically and irreversibly, and there would be no true renewal of the Catholic Church until that fact is recognised.

"The Church cannot continue to be present in society as it was in the past," he said.

Archbishop of Cashel and Emly Dermot Clifford also expressed remorse for the consistent failure to report abuse allegations, saying the people of the diocese were entitled to expect the complaints to be handled according to church guidelines.