IRELAND
Church Times
by Gregg Ryan, Ireland Correspondent
Posted: 14 Feb 2014
CHILD-protection groups in Ireland, including those within the Roman Catholic Church, have welcomed a UN report on the Vatican’s handling of child sexual abuse by clerics, and the recommendations that it has made.
The UN report was critical of moves by the RC Church to protect its own reputation, and its clergy, from the revelation of decades of sexual abuse in Ireland and elsewhere. It also criticised the response of the Church to those whom it had harmed.
The report stated: “The committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by, and the impunity of, the perpetrators.”
The executive director of the survivor group One in Four, Maeve Lewis, said: “This vindicates absolutely what survivors of abuse have been saying over the past decade. The Vatican has . . . never admitted that its policies and regulations ensured that priests were protected at the expense of children’s safety. This falsehood is now exposed.”
The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NB-SCCCI), under the leadership of a Presbyterian, Dr Ian Elliott, has in place procedures for all dioceses, and is seen as highly effective.
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