IRELAND
The Irish Times
CHARLIE TAYLOR
The Vatican is still not accepting responsibility for its role in creating the culture of cover-ups of the sexual abuse of children, it was claimed today.
One in Four, which supports survivors of abuse, expressed disappointment over the Vatican’s failure to acknowledge that its interventions in the abuse scandal had allowed church leaders to to ignore guidelines and to protect the Church at the expense of the safety of children.
“While we welcome the findings of the Visitation that the Irish Church now has good child protection practices in place we feel it is a lost opportunity to address the role played by the Vatican in perpetuating the policy of protecting abusive priests at the expense of children,” said executive director Maeve Lewis.
The organisation backed the recommendation that the Church devote more time to listening to abuse survivors and attending to their needs. However, she said One in Four had noticed a hardening of attitude on the part of church authorities the question of compensation for victims.
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