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	No One Said, 'We Have Failed You' Donegal Democrat February 18, 2010 http://www.donegaldemocrat.ie/donegalnews/No-one-said-39We-have.6081756.jp IRELAND -- This week's meeting of the Irish Bishops' Conference with Pope Benedict has drawn angry comment from survivors of clerical child sexual abuse and organisations that work with them. Photographs in Tuesday's newspapers of Irish bishops kissing the pope's ring seemed to provoke particular displeasure from the broader public as well. There did seem to be something discordant about an image of such unqualified reverence used to illustrate a meeting of people who had been called together specifically to discuss some of the worst abuses of authority in the history of the Irish Catholic Church.The very image gave an impression of the disconnect that people say the church hierarchy is experiencing. In light of the awful revelations of the Ryan and Murphy reports, and the acknowledgement that the hierarchy of the Irish church has been aware of the allegations against some of its priests, it would seem that at the very least the pomp of the occasion would be toned down even further in favour of more of a working atmosphere. But valuable work did take place, the Vatican said. A Vatican press release said that bishops "spoke frankly of the sense of pain and anger, betrayal, scandal and shame expressed to them on numerous occasions by those who had been abused." The statement acknowledged that "there is no doubt that errors of judgment and omissions stand at the heart of the crisis," without the statement actually apportioning blame. Pope Benedict has also promised a pastoral letter to the Catholic people of Ireland before Easter, and bishops had a chance to review and discuss a draft of the letter while they were in Rome. The statement said that the pope would complete the letter after taking into account the comments of Irish bishops. The lack of accountability in the statement disappointed abuse survivors, to say the least. People were also dismayed that there was no discussion during the two-day meeting of the possibility of further resignations. There were some who had hoped the meeting would result in a planned visit to Ireland by the pope, who could perhaps meet with survivors. Retired Donegal Garda Martin Ridge, who investigated the case of Eugene Greene and others, said this: "I didn't hear anybody saying to survivors, 'We have failed you, and we're sorry for failing you.'" The pope is scheduled to visit Glasgow and Edinburgh in mid-September. It would not take too long to add an Irish stop to his itinerary, if the will was there to address the wounds here that still have not healed.
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