Madam, - I would like to comment on Minister for Children Brian Lenihan's letter of December 23rd re the new Catholic Church policy on child protection. Mr Lenihan defends the published policy document falling short of the recommendations of the Ferns inquiry on the grounds that the document was sent to Rome before the publication of the Ferns report.
This defence falls down when it is seen that the Working Group on Child Protection (set up by the Bishops' Conference, Cori and the Irish Missionary Union in 2003 to develop the policy) of which I was a member, had produced a draft document which anticipated the likely Ferns recommendations with regard to allegations and which would have fully fulfilled them.
Our terms of reference set down that the policy should be consistent with the civil guidelines, "Children First". Our draft was consistent with, but went further than, these civil guidelines to give children the maximum protection possible. Mr Lenihan may not be aware of our draft document or that it was rejected by the church leadership. Perhaps he does not know that rather than weaken the provisions contained in it, the church's Working Group on Child Protection disbanded on September 16th, 2004.
The church's leadership and three consultants, who had been members of the working group, then went on to produce the recently published Our Children Our Church. Although based on our original draft and retaining a great deal that is excellent they deleted or amended the crucial provisions dealing with the reporting of all allegations to the civil authorities and the discussion of all these allegations with an inter-agency committee. These deleted or amended procedures would have fulfilled the Ferns recommendations. They would also have fulfilled recommendation 8 on reporting in Time to Listen (2003), a report sponsored by the church itself.
At the launch of this document Archbishop Seán Brady promised the recommendations of this report would be incorporated into the new policy.
In regard to reporting, it hasn't happened. This shows, in a very clear way, the unwillingness of the church leadership to move voluntarily as far as is necessary to ensure that the mistakes of the past cannot be repeated.
Bishop Colm O'Reilly, chairperson of the church steering group which rejected the working group's draft, in his article in The Irish Times of the same day as the Minister's letter does not offer any excuses about the policy being written before Ferns. In fact he is happy with it in every way.
Archbishop Seán Brady similarly, in an article on December 24th, is equally content. His only disappointment is that there has been a negative response from victims dissatisfied with the reporting procedures.
He says, "I thought there were victims whose voices we had listened to." I have to tell him, you didn't listen.
Victims' groups consulted by the working group as well as the victim members of the working group recommended all allegations be reported and their views were ignored - not by the working group in their original document but subsequently by the church leadership itself in its published document.
In the wake of the Ferns Report, church leaders assured the public that their 1996 guidelines, Child Sexual Abuse: Framework for a Church Response (the Green Book) properly implemented, provided for mandatory reporting of allegations.
The leadership must have known while issuing these reassurances that they had just approved a new document replacing the Green Book, which completely removed this policy.
Was Mr Lenihan told this when he called on all dioceses to confirm that they were implementing the provisions of the Green Book?
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin had no problem with implementing the original working group draft and said so publicly at the time.
I am confident that all allegations received in the Dublin diocese are being reported. Bishop Eamonn Walsh is implementing the Green Book strictly in Ferns diocese and all allegations there are being reported. Both these men understand child abuse from the sad history in these two dioceses.
If other church leaders cannot learn, then it is up to the State and Mr Lenihan to follow through on their promises and refuse to allow the church to hold internal investigations of abuse allegations before deciding whether or not to report them to the civil authorities. - Yours, etc,
MARIE COLLINS,
Firhouse,
Dublin 24.