IRELAND
Irish Times
Patsy McGarry
Thu, Oct 23, 2014
Support for people making allegations of clerical child sexual abuse continues to be inconsistent in some Catholic Church religious congregations, a review published today has found.
“Contact in many instances was not made directlyby the congregation and the opportunity for pastoral support was missed,” it said .
The observation was made by Teresa Devlin, chief executive of the Church’s child protection watchdog, its National Board for Safeguarding Children.
Today it has published 18 reviews of child safeguarding practices involving five five male and 13 female religious congregations. Eight are standard reviews of safeguarding practices against the seven established standards that the Catholic Church in Ireland has agreed to meet.
The congregations fully reviewed included the Vincentian Fathers, the Redemptorists, Sisters of St Louis, Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the Pallottines, St Joseph’s Missionary Society (Mill Hill), The Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers), the Presentation Sisters.
However, because 10 of the congregations are so small and have very limited contact with children, also due to the advanced age of their members and the fact that they face no allegations of sexual abuse in Ireland, these were assessed against a revised framework. “The 10 Congregations demonstrated a strong sense of commitment to working positively with the National Board, in spite of their limited ministries”, Ms Devlin said.
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