Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has insisted the child protection measures within the Irish church are “solid and good”.
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has insisted the child protection measures within the Irish church are “solid and good”.
Speaking to reporters before saying Mass at the Pro Cathedral in Dublin last night, Dr Martin welcomed Pope Benedict XVI’s pastoral letter to Irish Catholics, in which he apologised for the church’s “grave errors” in handling abuse cases.
“The pope very clearly stresses that the child protection laws that are in place in the Irish church are good and solid,” Dr Martin said.
“It’s a horrendous scandal, what happened. I’m glad there’s no sense of revisionism in the pope. Children were abused to an enormous extent and the church authorities got it spectacularly wrong.
“The pope is very clear that this is what happened. He’s not pointing the finger at one or other person but he is pointing out that as a result of failures, more children were abused,” Dr Martin added. “Responsibility was very much that of the Irish church. The Vatican had produced norms of canon law and they weren’t respected in the management of these cases.”
“At times we feel that the response from the Vatican wasn’t as quick as we would have liked it, but what is said is very clear: had the bishops followed the norms that were in place, things would not have been as disastrous as they are,” Dr Martin said.
He noted that while the pope make references to the rule of canon law, he also says the clergy has to continue co-operating with State law. “There’s no qualification on it,” he said.