The Journal
July 28, 2011
http://www.thejournal.ie/one-in-four-backs-senators-naming-of-sex-abuse-claims-cleric-188221-Jul2011/
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| Senator Mark Daly |
THE RELIGIOUS ORDER who had a member named in the Seanad as being an alleged child abuser has said that it was in "full compliance" with child safeguarding procedures.
Senator Mark Daly of Fianna Fáil used his parliamentary privilege yesterday to name the priest from the Sacred Heart Missionaries yesterday. The senator said that the cleric had been reported to gardai in seven allegations of abuse between 1986 and 2008 but that the DPP had not pursued a criminal case against him. The Irish Independent and the Examiner name the priest this morning, while the Irish Times does not.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie today, Senator Daly said that he had spoken to the Sacred Heart Missionaries in relation to safeguarding children in this particular case. The Sacred Heart Missionaries wrote to Rome last year to have the priest laicised and removed him from religious duties. However, said Daly, the priest has still been going on Church-related trips. The senator said:
The issue here is that this man has gone to Fatima, breaching the Order's own directives that he not. He went to Rome at Easter and they didn't know about that either.
The senator said that he had discussed with the Order that they might write to all past pupils of the school the priest was involved in to say that abuse was suspected and to ask anyone with concerns to come forward. Daly said that he was told in a letter from the Sacred Heart Missionaries order three weeks ago that they would do so. He said he then received another letter last Thursday which said they would not. This, he said, led to his naming of the priest in the Seanad:
The primary concern here is that children are not being harmed.
When asked if he believed the Order had done all it could to protect children, he replied:
The evidence doesn't show that.
The One in Four foundation, which helps survivors of child sexual abuse and fights for child protection, said this morning that they believed that Daly's decision to name the priest "creates an uncomfortable dilemma for everybody who is concerned with the safety of children". They said:
At One in Four we strongly believe that only convicted sex offenders should be named publicly and that everybody, regardless of their alleged crimes, should have the right to due legal process.
However, Executive Director with One in Four Maeve Lewis said that in this particular case, One in Four was supporting the move by Mark Daly to name the Sacred Heart Missionaries priest as being the subject of abuse complaints.
Lewis said that unfortunately it was the "major systemic flaw" of the justice and child protection system that had forced Daly's hand in naming the priest. She said:
Senator Daly was placed in an impossible position. He was contacted as a public representative by people who gave him plausible and compelling information that they had been abused by this person and that they had exhausted all possible legal avenues. Senator Daly had two choices: to do nothing and hope that another child would not be sexually abused or to act in order to protect children. I do not envy him this moral quandary.
Ultimately, he decided to act. We are all well aware of the horrendous consequences of secrecy and silence therefore, in this particular instance, One in Four supports his decision.
Details of the priest's previous position as a school principal and as a selector with minor and underage GAA teams in the 1980s and 1980s were revealed in the Seanad yesterday.
The Sacred Heart Missionaries have declined to comment this morning other than to release a statement which addressed Senator Daly's speech to the Seanad:
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart are in full compliance with all necessary guidelines in regard to Child Safeguarding and all allegations known to us have, over the years, been brought to the attention of the Gardai, HSE and The National Office for Safeguarding Children.
We have met with Senator Mark Daly, heard his understandable concerns and since then we have passed the detail of his concerns to an Garda Siochana. In keeping with our policies and practices, we have also responded to the issues raised and in doing so have kept the National Office for Safeguarding Children informed and sought their guidance.
Recently we invited the National Office to review all our procedures and information available to us on this critically important matter. Persons who have allegations made against them have been taken out of active ministry and are subject to restrictions in regard to access and travel.
We again sincerely apologise to those who were abused by members of our Order and we take this opportunity to again ask anyone who was abused by one of our members to report to An Garda Siochana, if they have not already done so. We will also offer whatever pastoral assistance we can to people who wish to make contact with us.
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