Countrywide Audit Would Reveal Many More Abuse "Skeletons': Dublin Priest

Irish Examiner
September 6, 2012

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/countrywide-audit-would-reveal-many-more-abuse-skeletons-dublin-priest-565885.html

[Safeguarding Reviews 2nd Tranche – September 2012]

A Dublin priest has said that if an audit were done of every religious congregation in the country, many more cases of child abuse - and their cover-up - would be revealed.

The reports of seven audits of religious congregations and dioceses by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church were released yesterday.

They found more than 330 allegations of abuse against 146 priests and members of congregations.

Records dating back to 1975 were examined in the dioceses of Clonfert in Galway, Cork and Ross, Limerick and Kildare and Leighlin, as well as the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, the Dominicans and the Congregation of the Holy Spirit.

Augustinian priest in Meath Street in Dublin Michael Mernagh said many still refused to acknowledge the nature and extent of abuse carried out by members of the Church.

"There is that culture of denial there. It is at the heart of the cancer which is at the heart of the institutional Church," he said.

"If an audit were done on each religious congregation, especially male congregations, in the country, one would find an awful lot of skeletons in the cupboard and the cover-up that has gone on."