The renewed controversy over sexual abuse by priests in the Dublin archdiocese has "reawakened the hurt" felt by victims, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has acknowledged. Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent, reports.
In a letter to priests of the archdiocese, Archbishop Martin said he was "acutely aware" that "the events of recent weeks" had been unsettling.
He did not refer directly to the High Court proceedings being taken by his predecessor, Cardinal Desmond Connell, who is seeking to prevent documents handed over by Archbishop Martin from being considered by the Government's inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse in the Dublin archdiocese.
The cardinal argues the documents are legally privileged.
Separately, it has emerged that in April 2002, Cardinal Connell, then archbishop of Dublin, acknowledged that the withholding of information by the archdiocese on grounds of confidentiality was wrong.
"I see now how legalistic and unreasonable this position would appear to a person who had been abused," he said. The common good "would have been better served" if relevant information had been supplied to the civil authorities, he said. "It would then have been a matter for the court to determine," he said.
He was speaking in the context of how the archdiocese handled the Marie Collins case. She had been abused by Fr Paul McGennis in 1960 while, as a child, she was a patient in Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Dublin, where the priest was a chaplain.
McGennis admitted the abuse.
In his letter this week to priests of the Dublin archdiocese, Archbishop Martin said Pope Benedict "outlined the essential elements of policies to protect children" when he met Ireland's Catholic bishops in October 2006, as they were on their ad limina visit to Rome, which usually takes place every five years.
The pope said to them that "in your continuing efforts to deal effectively with this problem, it is important to establish the truth of what happened in the past, to take whatever steps are necessary to prevent it from occurring again, to ensure that the principles of justice are fully respected and, above all, to bring healing to the victims and to all those affected by these egregious crimes", he recalled.
Archbishop Martin continued: "This policy is what inspires me and the policies of the archdiocese of Dublin on all levels. This will not change."
In his statement of April 13th, 2002, on the Marie Collins case,Cardinal Connell outlined a history of how it had been dealt with by the archdiocese.
He said, where Mrs Collins's criticisms were concerned, she was "justified in the most fundamental of these criticisms. Our failures became an additional burden to Mrs Collins and I wish to offer her my heartfelt apology."
He said that "in 1996 Monsignor Stenson, the then chancellor of the diocese, judged admissions by Fr McGennis as confidential to our church inquiry. I now consider that Mrs Collins and the common good in this case would have been better served if an acknowledgment had been given of this information to the gardaí. It would then have been a matter for the court to determine whether Fr McGennis's statement to the church inquiry should be admitted in evidence against him."
He continued in the statement: "Monsignor Stenson felt that he was bound by confidentiality under canon law and therefore not free to disclose voluntarily what he had learned. I see now how legalistic and unreasonable this position would appear to a person who had been abused."
That statement of Cardinal Connell's was faxed to his Cork-based solicitor Diarmuid Ó Cathán, with questions, by The Irish Timesyesterday. Despite further telephone contact later, no response had been received last night.