IRELAND
Irish Times
August 20, 2018
By Simon Carswell
Group hopes prosecution of senior clerics in Australia and US leads to global groundswell
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Pope Francis should introduce zero tolerance into canon law if he is to follow his words with actions to prevent the clerical sexual abuse of children by priests, an anti-abuse campaigner has said.
Anne Barrett Doyle, a co-director of Bishop Accountability, an online research group that tracks clerical abuse cases globally, and Mark Vincent Healy, who was sexually abused by two priests, said the pope’s letter to Catholics on Monday did not go far enough to address accountability for the church’s cover-up of clerical child sex abuse.
The campaigners were speaking at the announcement of an online database that lists the names of more than 70 Irish clergy who have been convicted or identified as abusers in official clerical abuse reports.
In his letter, Pope Francis said the church had not acted “in a timely matter” and expressed “shame and repentance” for the Catholic Church showing “no care for the little ones”.
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