IRELAND
Irish Independent
SARAH MAC DONALD
Survivors of clerical abuse have lashed out at the Association of Catholic Priests over its description of incidents of abuse by priests as “mistakes”.
Marie Collins told the Irish Independent she was “shocked” by the ACP’s comment.
And a priest, who was himself the victim of clerical abuse, described the ACP’s attitude as “despicable”.
It came after ACP’s Fr Sean McDonagh and Fr Tony Flannery “raised the difficulties around historical allegations” with the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church this week.
On its website, Fr Tony Flannery stated that they had “questioned the justice” of excluding many older priests from ministry “because of a mistake or mistakes they made in their earlier life” where there was “no pattern of re-offending”.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.