Review of Safeguarding Practice in the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Irish Province

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland
September 5, 2012

http://www.safeguarding.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Missionaries_-of_-the_-Sacred_-Heart_-MSC.pdf

[with pdf]

Conclusions

1. It is difficult to express adequately the failure of this Society to effectively protect vulnerable children. Their actions indicate a disregard for the suffering of victims and a misunderstanding of the nature of the problem within the Society.

2. As a result of the abuse that should have been prevented, it is reasonable to speculate that a great deal of suffering has occurred. In the assessment of the NBSCCCI it could have been prevented but those who should have taken action to prevent it either chose not to do so or were effectively blocked from doing so by a wall of secrecy which did not permit child protection information to be shared. This worked very much in the favour of those who had caused harm to children and wanted to continue to prey upon them.

3. People who were aware that abuse had been admitted to saw no need to report that fact to the Garda Síochána. The internal communication that took place with the Superior General in Rome, we are told, was verbal in nature and not recorded. Although it seems extraordinary that such serious matters should be dealt with in such an informal way, this must be seen as yet another example of the lack of understanding that existed in this Society and that what they were dealing with actually mattered very much.

4. Two basic principles underpin the current Church safeguarding policies in force in the Catholic Church in Ireland today. They are that children should be protected from harm and those that cause harm to them or allow it to happen, should be held accountable for their actions. The investigation of the child protection practice in this religious community is an excellent example of why those principles are now in place in the Church in Ireland, and why they must be adhered to by everyone within the Church without exception.