Prelate's position as chairman of maternity hospital queried

A GOVERNMENT backbencher has told the Dáil that it is inappropriate for the Archbishop of Dublin to be chairman of the National Maternity Hospital.

Ciarán Cuffe (Green, Dún Laoghaire) said it was “time to move on from that” and it was “not appropriate for a representative of the church to chair such a hospital or many other State institutions. We have to examine carefully the possibility of putting in place an alternative mechanism for these institutions”.

Referring to the controversy over the papal nuncio’s failure to respond to the Commission of Investigation Report into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin, Mr Cuffe said that responsibility “has to go to the top. The pope should comment on this matter and set out the changes that will arise from the horrendous evidence contained in these volumes”.

During the debate on the Dublin diocesan report on clerical child abuse Lucinda Creighton (FG, Dublin South-East) said “Irish society as a whole colluded to cover up these scandals. There was a priest who abused numerous children in my home parish. Everybody knew about it. He was moved to a neighbouring parish where he continued the abuse. Many, if not most, lay members of the church,that is, people who went to read at mass and give out communion every Sunday and who were the so-called pillars of the community, knew what had happened and facilitated the cover- up”.

Catherine Byrne (FG, Dublin South Central) said that “for decades, priests have run our parishes and schools and sat on hospital boards. Every step of the way they assumed responsibility for our children. We trusted them completely . . . This country’s greatest failing was that nobody dared to question it”.

She added that the report had “deeply affected my faith in the Catholic Church as I see it today, a church that has lost its connection with its people. Sadly, I do not believe much has changed today. I experienced this in the recent past when a family crisis led me to seek guidance from the church. Although the clergy were sympathetic and concerned, they never acted. It was all words”.

Charlie O’Connor (FF, Dublin South West) said that “not much attention has been paid to the fact that questions must be answered by those in the medical profession who intervened in cases of child abuse”.