IRELAND
Irish Times
Patsy McGarry
Public announcements by the church that a priest is standing aside from ministry due to child abuse allegations should emphasise the presumption of innocence, updated Catholic Church child protection guidelines have said.
Published by the Church’s child protection body, its National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC), the guidelines also emphasise that in such cases, while parishioners cannot be told everything, “what they are told should be the truth.”
The Guidance on Child Safeguarding seven documents, published on Wednesday morning, also advise that when an accused priest dies before an investigation has concluded “careful thought should be given by the Church authority to the way the requiem liturgy and internment is conducted. Publicly praising the respondent’s qualities as a priest could have a seriously detrimental impact on complainants.”
Once again the inviolability of the confessional is reiterated. While “all suspicions, concerns and allegations of child abuse must be reported to the statutory authorities,” they state that “there is one exception to this rule. That is “if abuse is disclosed during the Sacrament of Reconciliation,” the documents say.
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