By Mary Murphy
The Kingdom
July 9, 2010
http://www.the-kingdom.ie/news/story/?trs=mhmhgbkfmh
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THE Bishop of Kerry has acknowledged the anger and frustration felt by parishioners in the diocese due to the child abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church.
He said he had done his best since he took up office 15 years ago but he acknowledged that there was anger at the way Church authorities had responded to the whole crisis of child sexual abuse.
"I can say, with my hand on my heart, that I have done my best to respond at all times to allegations of child sexual abuse," Bishop Murphy said.
"We’re light years ahead of where we were 20 years ago. We have put in place, in so far as possible, procedures that will ensure that it would be most difficult for what happened in the past to happen in the future. If it does it will be responded to quickly and adequately," he insisted.
Bishop Murphy was speaking on the Horizons radio programme as part of the ongoing Let’s Listen sessions which are taking place in each of the 12 pastoral areas in the diocese, giving people an opportunity to express feelings and attitudes towards the Church at this point in time.
Nine of the Kerry meetings have already taken place with more than 500 people attending and a further three scheduled for September.
Bishop Murphy told of the anger expressed by the laity to date as part of the process.
"They expressed great frustration, great anger, great confusion, shame, disappointment at the revelations that had come out and the manner in which the church authorities dealt with them," he said.
"I suppose there was also frustration that just when we seem to be getting over the hill, we’re hit by more revelations. It seems to be unending," he added.
On a more positive note, however, Bishop Murphy stressed that many who attended the meetings also spoke of their strong faith and their support for their own priests.
"Quite frankly I was a little surprised that so much of the feedback was positive. People did, of course, express their anger and confusion but that did not surprise me because I knew that people were angry and confused," the bishop remarked.
He acknowledged that some priests find it very difficult to work collaboratively with people and it was proving difficult to change that mindset when it comes to working as part of a team.
The Bishop of Kerry also spoke about the difficulties of rationally arguing against the ordination of women within in the church.
"People find it hard to get their head around the idea of an all-male celibate priesthood. It’s difficult to see intellectually the arguments in favour of that," he accepted.
"But I take the position the magisterium (teaching) of the church is divinely guided and inspired and perhaps may contain more truth than my little head can contain.
"The main argument would be tradition. The church has never ordained women and that’s a strong argument but I’m not a prophet – I don’t know what will happen in the next century," he added.
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