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	This Life: Sins of the Fathers By Alf McCreary Belfast Telegraph [Northern Ireland] March 18, 2006 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/features/story.jsp?story=683019 The Catholic Church has taken a deserved battering over its handling of child abuse cases in recent years, but now it has shown a welcome initiative in handing over to the DHSSPS and the PSNI a dossier of allegations against priests This is a part of its drive to follow the best practice on child protection. It will receive little enough credit for doing so, from victims and those who have been appalled by the previous ghastly practice of shuffling abusing clergy to other parishes where they continued to prey on vulnerable children. The latest measures announced by the Primate Archbishop Sean Brady will help to ensure that the sins of the Fathers (and Sisters) are much less likely to occur again. Paedophiles are as ingenious as they are persistent in trying to satisfy their perverted appetites, and individuals may still evade all child protection measures which are put in their way. Nevertheless, there can be no doubting the determination of the Catholic Church to try to get it right, at last. As Archbishop Brady said: "We want everyone in the Church to know what actions to take if they have concerns about the safety of a child. We want these actions to be effective, and we want to work in full co-operation with the DHSSPS, the PSNI and other agencies." As an indication of their sincerity, the Primate and his fellow Bishops in the north have undertaken voluntarily to undergo vetting and to co-operate fully will the relevant units in the DHSSPS and the police. This smacks partly of PR, in that the Bishops do not need to undergo vetting unless they change their jobs - but it gives a lead to the clergy and laity in general. In other words, if a Catholic layman or woman queries the need to undergo vetting for a post involving working with children, the Bishop can say: "I have voluntarily undergone vetting, now you do are required to do it." It is a case of leading by example rather than, as in the past, by giving people a symbolic belt around the ear with the Bishop's crozier. The Church also decided, on its own initiative, to hand over to the police and the DHSS a dossier on all known cases of child abuse allegations, from the period 1965 to 2005. There were 47, out of a total of some 2,000 priests working in the North during this time - though the Church underlined that these allegations were both "proven or unproven". Archbishop Brady stressed: "Some of these people were acquitted, some are now dead, some are in prison, and others are no longer in the ministry." Comparable figures for those in religious Orders, including a large proportion of nuns, suggest that there were 34 cases, out of a total of some 3,200 living in the North. However, this was a total of 81 cases too many, and few will forget the pictures of priests like the notorious Fr Brendan Smyth, whose predatory evil - like that of too many others - left a stain on the Church that is so difficult to eradicate. A great deal more needs to be done, not least in light of the horrors revealed by the recent Ferns Report with its catalogue of sexual child abuse in that Diocese, but the Catholic Church seems to be learning from its past mistakes. However, as in much else concerning the Churches, people will be judged on their actions and not just their words. It is also important to underline not one, but two, areas for further caution. One is the fact that child protection is not just a matter for the clergy but for the laity and all members of the church at every level. Secondly, this is not just a matter for the Catholic Church, and its clergy and laity alone. It is a worry for all the Churches, and even though the main denominations already have their safeguards in place, no one can afford to be complacent. Archbishop Brady is a decent man who has inherited such a mess in his own Church and might well have been speaking for all the Churches when he said: "We want to ensure that where the Church is, children will be safe." No-one will quarrel with that. Hey Jude The latest sensational church news is that the gospel of Judas is about the be published "amid explosive controversy." The latest revelations are said to portray Judas not as a traitor, but as a hero and one of Christ's best-loved disciples. Ho, ho! Surely this is turning the Gospel story into a farce, even though I have always had a sneaking sympathy for Judas. He had the unenviable destiny of being the traitor - someone had to do it - and the predestination lobby have never explained fully why poor old Judas was the fall guy. However, nothing about the Churches surprises me nowadays - what with the Vatican abolishing limbo, and famous authors writing best-selling books about Jesus and Mary Magdalene allegedly starting a family. Also, I have exclusive news for you about the latest blockbuster which I intend to ghost-write very soon - 'The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene'. It will be available from all good (and naughty) bookshops. Thought for the weekend The recent death of Slobadan Milosevic has brought to an end at least one reign of terror, though the signs of deep unrest in the Balkans still simmer beneath the surface, hopefully without a return to past tragedies. The world's attention has long since moved elsewhere from those grim events in the 1990s; other areas now capture the headlines due to man's seemingly perennial inhumanity to man - Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan.The causes of conflict are many and varied but one of the phenomena that they nearly always seem to throw up is someone who sees himself (it's nearly always a man, isn't it?) in the role of the defender of his community, the champion of their rights, the guarantor of their cause, the one whose destiny it is to act tough so that justice can be done. The lines of continuity between the school bully, the impossible boss, and the tyrannical leader of a particular people are not as implausible as you might imagine. Acting tough just to prove you're tough is a depressingly destructive and self-defeating mindset. But if there is room in life for some folks being tough or taking the hard option, my vote for Britain's toughest man might well go to Steve Perry from Todmorden in West Yorkshire. Two years ago he spent seven months living and hiking in the great outdoors, travelling from Lands' End to John O'Groats, traversing all of Britain's 303 mountain peaks over the height of 3,000 feet along the way. That was during the milder months. This time, starting last December 1, he's aiming to be the first person to walk 1,500 miles without land transport, living out in the wild for four months in the depth of Scotland's wild winter weather, in the process climbing all of the 284 Munros (mountains over 3,000 feet high) and aiming to finish by the end of March. So far, despite some grim conditions - awesome blizzards, sudden swollen rivers and cracked ribs - he's still on course, an incredible feat of physical, mental and emotional endurance. Why? Well, he loves the hills, and that might be all the justification that someone arguably needs. But Steve is motivated by something else; on both trips, he's been raising money for cancer research. You can follow Steve's progress on the following website www.rab.uk.com/schedule_steveperry.htm or make a donation on www.justgiving.com/winter284 Thank God there's someone, somewhere, who's prepared to use their innate toughness, not to threaten, hurt or terrorise, but to do what they can to help and inspire other people. For don't all of us, in some sense, have challenges to face, and mountains to climb, and great things still to reach for? It's Archbishops at the double Visiting Archbishops are a bit like buses - you wait for a long time for one to appear, and then two arrive almost together. So it is with the Church of England.Next week the new Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, will visit the Clogher Diocese from March 23-26 to share in the 1,500th anniversary of the splendidly-named St Macartan. Then Dr George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, will visit Northern Ireland to deliver a highly topical lecture on Islam. at the Ulster Museum (Wednesday, March 29, 7.30pm). Hand me my gaiters - I can hardly wait to meet both these welcome visitors.
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