Daily Mail
February 15, 2010
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1251226/Vatican-warns-Irish-clergy-admit-blame-abominable-acts-Murphy-report-ahead-crisis-talks-child-abuse.html
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| Facing the music: Pope Benedict meeting Ireland's bishops at the Vatican. The meeting followed revelations in two shock judicial reports in 2009 about the extent of abuse by clerics and efforts by the church authorities to cover it up |
A top Vatican official has told bishops that clergy who had sinned in the Irish church's vast paedophilia scandal must admit blame for 'abominable acts'.
The message came in the sermon of a mass in St Peter's Basilica before the bishops began two days of crisis talks with the pope to formulate a response to the revelations of abuse by clergy.
The meetings, the first of their kind at the Vatican in eight years, will discuss a plan of action and could lead to more prelates resigning in a shakeup of the Irish church hierarchy. Four have already quit.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, number two in the Vatican hierarchy, said: 'Yes, storms spark fear, even those that rock the boat of the church because of the sins of its members.'
He added that trials within the church 'are naturally harder and more humiliating' particularly when 'men of the church were involved in such particularly abominable acts'.
Pope Benedict, the 24 Irish bishops and top Vatican officials will hold three sessions in response to the outrage in Ireland over the Murphy Commission Report, a damning indictment of child sex abuse by priests.
The report, published in November, said the church in Ireland had 'obsessively' concealed child abuse in the Dublin archdiocese from 1975 to 2004, and operated a policy of 'don't ask, don't tell'.
It said all Dublin bishops in charge during the period under examination had been aware of some complaints, but the archdiocese had been more preoccupied with protecting the reputation of the church than safeguarding children.
Four bishops have offered their resignations and the pope has so far accepted one.
Victims' group One in Four called on other bishops throughout Ireland who engaged in a 'culture of cover up' to step down.
They have also said they would seek monetary compensation, which could lead to a financial crisis for the Irish church.
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| Scandal: The 24 Irish bishops will meet with Pope Benedict to discuss a plan of action and more prelates could resign as the church is shaken up |
In the U.S. church, hit by a similar scandal in 2002, seven dioceses have filed for bankruptcy protection in the wake of thousands of sex abuse claims against priests.
The Vatican said in December the Pope would write to the Irish people about the crisis - the first time a pontiff will have devoted a document solely to alleged clergy abuse.
He has previously condemned the abuse during trips to two countries hard hit by scandals - the U.S. and Australia. In December, he expressed his 'outrage, betrayal and shame' over the Irish case.
But critics say the Vatican and the church have not gone far enough in handing over suspected abusers to civil justice.
The current archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, who took his post after the period covered by the Murphy report, has said he expected 'a very significant reorganisation of the church in Ireland'.
The church's prominent role in Irish life was one of the reasons abuses were allowed to go unchecked, the report said.
One priest has admitted abusing more than 100 children. Another said he had abused children every two weeks for more than 25 years.
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