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	Victims Can Meet with Irish Bishop Who Failed to Report Abuse Charges By Michael Kelly The Pilot December 21, 2011 http://www.thebostonpilot.com/article.asp?ID=14130 DUBLIN (CNS) -- Survivors of clerical sexual abuse in the Cloyne Diocese will be able to meet with the bishop under whose leadership allegations of abuse went unreported to civil authorities in violation of established policy. Under a new plan announced Dec. 19 by Archbishop Dermot Clifford, apostolic administrator of the Cloyne Diocese, victims would be able to meet Bishop John Magee and Msgr. Denis O'Callaghan, who oversaw the diocese's child protection program as vicar general. The plan was announced as the final chapter of a report into the handling of abuse in the Cloyne Diocese was published. The chapter revealed that while Bishop Magee ran the diocese, abuse allegations were not reported to civil authorities. The chapter of the report by Judge Yvonne Murphy was withheld from publication in July by Ireland's High Court until court proceedings involving a priest charged with sexual abuse and identified only as "Father Ronat" concluded. Bishop Magee, a former private secretary to Popes Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II, initially stepped aside in 2009 following criticism of his failures to implement proper child protection policies. He resigned a year later. Murphy's report severely criticized Msgr. O'Callaghan, who was accused of thwarting church policy that required automatic reporting of allegations to civil authorities as far back as 1996. Bishop Magee and Msgr. O'Callaghan were found to be concealing reports of clergy sexual abuse as recently as 2008, according to the report's findings. The newly released chapter reiterated criticism of both Bishop Magee and Msgr. O'Callaghan, but also noted that "at least three priests of the diocese appear to have ignored complaints." The outreach program, which Archbishop Clifford said was successful for victims in the United States, is expected to be rolled out in early 2012. Archbishop Clifford extended his sympathy to abuse victims, admitting that some priests in the diocese failed to adequately appreciate the suffering of victims. "I suppose they didn't see the thing as a crime ... they saw the thing more as a sin than a crime and (they) probably weren't advised strictly enough as to where their duties lay when an allegation came to them," he said. The judicial inquiry in Cloyne arose after the church's own child protection watchdog, the National Board for Safeguarding Children, found in 2009 that child protection practices in the diocese were "inadequate, and in some respects dangerous." Murphy's report, published on July 13, examined how abuse allegations against 19 priests there were handled between 1996 and 2009.
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