IRELAND
Irish Times
Irish Times
Patsy McGarry
The failure by some male religious congregations to comply with the Catholic Church’s own child protection guidelines has been criticised by the Church’s own child protection agency in its latest review.
Teresa Devlin, chief executive of the Maynooth-based National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) said: “I’m disappointed that, for the majority of Orders, the whole area of safeguarding is only being bedded down in the last couple of years.”
She was referring to the Augustinians, Passionists, Franciscan Friars, Franciscan Brothers, the Servites, Discalced Carmelites, and Marist Fathers. She also found that where some congregations were concerned known abusers were allowed to remain in ministry in 1990’s while, when it came to delays in reporting abuse to civil authorities “for some practice did not improve until 2013.”
Of nine congregations reviewed in reports published on Tuesday, she said “only two Orders (the Dominican Sisters and Sacred Heart Fathers) have demonstrated good compliance with the standards, and have demonstrated their commitment to putting in place good safeguards for children as well as prompt responses to allegations of abuse. For the other seven there is considerable work to be done.”
The NBSC found that a total of 285 allegations were made between 1940 and 1998 against 98 priests and brothers in these nine congregations, with eight criminal convictions.
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