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	Church Culture Must Change after Scandal, Dublin Archbishop Says Catholic San Francisco April 13, 2011 http://www.catholic-sf.org/news_select.php?newsid=2&id=58434 MILWAUKEE (CNS) – The Archdiocese of Dublin "got it spectacularly wrong" in not assuming responsibility for the harm done through the clergy abuse crisis, the head of the archdiocese told an international conference on the clergy sex abuse scandal April 4. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the opening speaker at a two-day conference at Marquette University Law School, said he "cannot accept a situation where no one need assume responsibility in the face of terrible damage done to children in the church." The official number of child abuse victims in the Dublin archdiocese from 1940 to 2010, with 90 diocesan priests and 60 religious priests implicated, is 570 "but it's generally accepted that the number of victims must run into the thousands," Archbishop Martin said. Most of the 10 serial abusers in the archdiocese victimized hundreds of children each, he said. Archbishop Martin said his dominant emotion was anger as investigations by the church and civil authorities revealed the scale of the disaster. He said he spoke at the conference not to reopen history "but to illustrate just how difficult it is to bring an institution around to the conviction that the truth must be told. "All institutions have an innate tendency to protect themselves," he said. "We have to learn that the truth has a power to set free which half-truths do not have." All parties must be willing to tell the truth, and take ownership of it, for restorative justice to prevail, he said. Other speakers at the conference, "Harm, Hope and Healing: International Dialogue on the Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal," included Bishop Blase J. Cupich of Spokane, Wash., chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People, as well as a group of abuse victims, priests and various experts. Bishop Cupich called the conference a "much-needed effort to bring healing in what is a historically challenging but also decisive moment for our church." Archbishop Martin was harsh in his assessment of most of the priest abusers he had met since becoming archbishop of Dublin in 2004. "I can honestly say that with perhaps two exceptions, I have not encountered a real and unconditional admission of guilt and responsibility on the part of priest offenders in my diocese," the archbishop said. "Survivors have repeatedly told me that one of the greatest insults and hurts they have experienced is to see the lack of real remorse on the part of offenders even when they plead guilty in court." The Dublin prelate's remarks directed both to victims and perpetrators echoed Pope Benedict XVI's May 2010 pastoral letter to the Irish church. "You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry," the pope said in addressing victims. "I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured." The Irish archbishop said a Feb. 20 "liturgy of lament and repentance" at the Dublin cathedral "was a truly restorative moment" for many abuse survivors. "But there are so many survivors who have not yet had that experience of being surrounded by a church in lament, rather than a church still wanting to be in charge," he said. Archbishop Martin said the church must analyze whether "the culture of clericalism" might have "somehow facilitated disastrous abusive behavior to continue for so long" and must repent for the "false understanding of mercy and human nature" that allows offenders to continue to abuse children. "Serial sexual abusers manipulatively weaved their way in and out of the net of mercy for years, when what they really needed was that they be firmly blocked in their path," he said. The archbishop said his first decision on being assigned to Dublin was to make sure all abuse files were re-examined by an outside expert. He also re-established use of canonical trials for abusers. "There was a culture where the church dealt with their own things in their own way," he said. "We had this mixture – avoid scandal at all costs, but also, be merciful (saying): 'Poor Father, he really was very good.'" Archbishop Martin said that as he learned more and met with victims, parents, spouses and children, he became further convinced the investigation was the right thing to do. "With all my personal failings, when I arrive to St. Peter, he'll weigh my case against the 70,000 documents on the other side of the scale," he said, referring to the number of documents he provided to the government Murphy Commission investigating clergy abuse. The commission reported to the government Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform in November 2009, saying it had no doubt that abuse was concealed and the coverup was facilitated by church "structures and rules" and government inaction. "The welfare of children, which should have been the first priority, was not even a factor to be considered in the early stages," the commission said. "Instead the focus was on the avoidance of scandal and the preservation of the good name, status and assets of the institution and of what the institution regarded as its most important members – the priests." Archbishop Martin said in his talk that the report catalogued "indisputable horrors" and was met with "ritualistic expressions of regret" from a "church of silence" where "no one was accountable. No one was saying anything anymore." "One chapter of the Murphy Report has not been published in its entirety," he said. "There is still more to come about another Irish diocese where the Murphy Report has been finalized but not yet published. But the story does not stop there. Since the Murphy Report has been published the diocese has been receiving more and more complaints especially about a number of serial pedophiles who had been ministering in the diocese over a long period of time." The archbishop urged greater attention to seminary formation and warned against accepting candidates for priesthood who "may be looking not to serve but for some form of personal security or status which priesthood may seem to offer them." He said he planned to require all future priests to "carry out some part of their formation together with laypeople so that they can establish mature relationships with men and women and do not develop any sense of their priesthood giving them a special social position." "There are signs of renewed clericalism, which may even at times be ably veiled behind appeals for deeper spirituality or for more orthodox theological positions," he said.
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