IRELAND
Irish Examiner
By Caroline O’Doherty
Religious orders are still failing to respond adequately to victims of clerical child sex abuse, the latest tranche of monitoring reports reveals.
While practices have improved in terms of acting quickly on allegations of abuse and alerting the gardaí and health authorities, orders are subsequently running scared of complainants and cutting themselves off from contact with them.
“They miss that human bit,” said Teresa Devlin, chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) which yesterday published reviews of safeguarding practice in 18 orders and congregations.
“After they have notified the civil authorities, they should be writing and inviting those people to come and meet with them. Survivors can get angry and can get upset, but that’s what they have to put up with.”
The latest tranche of reports shows that many orders are still having to actively manage members against whom allegations have been made but where there has either been no criminal investigation — because the complaint relates to a time when the member was working overseas — or no conviction.
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