IRELAND
Irish Times
Why do some missionary societies still lag behind when it comes to child protection?
Patsy McGarry
It has been a long road. Based on the findings of the eight reviews of child protection published yesterday, we can conclude that much has been achieved by Catholic Ireland in this fraught area.
But it is remarkable that, yet again, another missionary society has demonstrated it too, apparently, has been quite oblivious to the abuse crisis that has engulfed the church and the possible implications this may have for the behaviour of some of its members.
It is as though superiors of these societies have felt that because members work abroad they were somehow immune to practices found among some fellow clergy at home, or that because they were in foreign countries it was acceptable to do things differently there.
Not only do those superiors help sustain, if not facilitate, the abuse of children through a casual approach, they have also helped damage the good name of a great majority of our missionaries. It is a pattern witnessed before in Ireland, where the bishops were concerned. Superiors of some missionary congregations, it would seem, are slow learners.
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