IRELAND
Irish Independent
Sarah MacDonald– 18 March 2013
THE sexual abuse of a child is “very clearly a crime” in civil and church law and there can be no going back on that, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has said.
He was responding to comments made by the Archbishop of Durban, Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, who said in a BBC interview that paedophilia was an illness, not a crime.
The South African prelate also questioned whether someone with this psychological defect deserved to be automatically punished.
However, Dr Martin criticised Cardinal Napier’s view, saying the fact that someone who has abused a child might have psychological disturbances did not exempt them from the rigours of the law.
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