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Nick Garbutt: Wounds Caused by Catholic Church Run Deep

News Letter
May 3, 2012

http://www.newsletter.co.uk/community/columnists/nick-garbutt-wounds-caused-by-catholic-church-run-deep-1-3800505

THE BBC report this week into the role of Cardinal Sean Brady, head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, in the 1975 investigation into paedophile priest Brendan Smith was profoundly disturbing, but should not come as a surprise.

In 2009 an independent report into child abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Dublin concluded: “The Dublin Archdiocese’s preoccupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets. All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities. The Archdiocese did not implement its own canon law rules and did its best to avoid any application of the law of the state”.

This, indeed, has been the pattern right across the world: in the USA, in Germany, in France, in Austria: wherever allegations of abuse have surfaced against priests the first instinct was to protect the church from scandal, and not young children from harm.

The Murphy Report went further though: it found that it wasn’t until 1995 that the church troubled itself to inform civic authorities of abuse claims, and alleged that, prior to that, the Irish police were party to the cover-up, preferring to refer cases to church authorities rather than deal with them themselves.

And one of the revelations from Wikileaks was that when the Murphy team approached the Vatican for information to help with its investigation it didn’t receive a response – church authorities said that as it was a sovereign state it would only communicate with other governments.

The allegations against Cardinal Brady are that he was part of a team set up to investigate allegations against Fr Smith made by a young boy called Brendan Boland. After he was interviewed, young Brendan was made to swear on a Bible that he would not talk to anyone else about what had happened to him, and although Brendan passed on information about other children who had been abused by Smith, the church did not protect them and Smith was able to carry on assaulting young children.

This does seem to chime with another conclusion of the Murphy Report: “There was little or no concern for the welfare of the abused child or for the welfare of other children who might come into contact with the priest. Complainants were often met with denial, arrogance and cover-up and with incomprehension in some areas. Suspicions were rarely acted on.”

In response to the BBC’s report the Catholic church has pointed out that in those days “no state or church guidelines for responding to allegations of child abuse existed in Ireland”.

In 2006 the Catholic Church did provide information from its own archives to the PSNI of allegations of child abuse against 41 clergy dating back to 1965, but there was insufficient evidence for any prosecutions.

Key here is that there is a great reluctance amongst child victims of sexual abuse to tell the authorities. This is especially the case with boys, many choosing not to do so at all, others only talking about their ordeal in adulthood. PSNI figures show that crimes of this nature not reported within 48 hours are much less likely to be solved.

It is therefore very difficult to resolve old cases and allegations.

However, child abuse was just as much a crime in 1975 as it is today and it would be interesting to know why the Catholic Church, not just in Ireland, but throughout the world, did not consider it necessary to involve the proper authorities when they were aware of allegations of serious crime. Nobody is above the law, and no religious denomination, however powerful, should be allowed to ignore the responsibilities that are expected of other citizens.

Cardinal Brady may well have been following his orders to the letter back in 1975 when he was involved in the investigation. And there may well have been a different culture within his church at that time. However, the church he now leads has caused severe damage, to the victims of abusive priests and their families, to society in Ireland, north and south, and most of all to itself. Many Catholics have left the church. Those that remain are devastated by what has happened. The priesthood is in crisis, with many devout clerics finding themselves under suspicion from their own parishioners.

The Church is responsible for this. It has abused the trust of its members and put its own reputation ahead of safeguarding the interests of the most vulnerable in society. Healing the damage will take a long time and will not be possible in Ireland under Cardinal Brady’s stewardship.

 

 

 

 

 




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