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	Buckley Praises TV Report on Child Abuse By Alf McCreary Belfast Telegraph [Northern Ireland] October 3, 2006 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=708683 The Catholic Church will be "dragged kicking and screaming" into a more open way of dealing with child abuse, according to Bishop Pat Buckley of Larne. He told the Belfast Telegraph that Sunday night's Panorama programme on clerical child abuse in the Catholic Church "was very hard-hitting". "One of the major problems is that the Catholic Church believes that Canon Law is superior to civil law and one of the clerical priorities is to protect the church" Bishop Buckley, who broke away from the main Catholic Church some years ago, said: "During my time I have dealt with several kinds of situation including the abuse of children and adults by clerics. The Bishop said he was more hopeful about the future. He added: "The situation can only improve, and for two main reasons. This will be due to 'people power' where this kind of thing will be longer be tolerated or covered up, and also the power of the responsible, authentic media which will help to expose what is going on. "I think that openness will be forced upon the Church but that it will be dragged into it kicking and screaming." Meanwhile, the DUP's Jim Allister is to raise the Panorama allegations with the Justice and Human Rights Commissioner of the EU. The MEP said that he had tabled a question asking the European Commission to comment on the issues raised on Sunday night's programme and to "urge upon the Vatican the necessity and duty of full disclosure to the police by Church authorities of all information on child abuse incidents." The Panorama programme claimed that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - now Pope Benedict XVI - was instrumental in enforcing church law which attempted to silence the victims of clerical sex abuse. Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham said that the Panorama programme misrepresented confidential Vatican papers to back up its claims.
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