The Archbishop of Dublin, Cardinal Desmond Connell, has instructed that resources "are to be applied immediately" to set up a support network for those who have suffered clerical child sexual abuse in the archdiocese.
Cardinal Connell said yesterday: "I now realise that the diocese will only be able to provide an appropriate service to those who have suffered abuse if it has been designed from their perspective."
Their feelings and experiences "throughout the time-span of the abuse they have suffered, and its consequences, must be allowed to contribute to the shape and provision of this service" and to the way it is monitored when it has been set up.
His statement follows meetings between diocesan representatives and Mrs Marie Collins and Mr Ken Reilly, who themselves were abused. The cardinal met both on December 30th last and again on February 14th.
At that last meeting Mrs Collins and Mr Reilly "expressed serious concerns about what they saw as the inadequate pastoral support from the diocese to those who have suffered clerical child sexual abuse".
They pointed out that concern applied particularly in the case of those who had recently reported for the first time that they had been abused. Both stressed that, irrespective of when the abuse took place, victims felt particularly vulnerable at the time when they first reported it, a statement from the archdiocese said yesterday.
Cardinal Connell was "profoundly grateful" to Mrs Collins and Mr Reilly "for their courageous support of efforts to provide this vital service".
Their commitment to the cause of those who have been abused "and the perspective they bring to our deliberations, from their own direct experience, are uniquely helpful", he said.
The new service will be the responsibility of the director of the Diocesan Child Protection Service in Dublin.
Over the past 50 years allegations of abuse have been made against 35 priests serving in the Dublin archdiocese.
To date 107 victims have directly approached the diocese in connection with abuse and, where compensation is concerned, 29 cases involving allegations against diocesan priests are closed.
A further 30 cases against diocesan priests are pending.
