GAY BROCKLESBY,
Sir, - As priests we are aware of the pain of those who have suffered and not been heard, and we pray and act that these matters will be put right. We pray too for abusers, that they will be given healing in their psyche so as to have peace of mind. We think about and pray for all the families involved and particularly the faithful and clergy who are traumatised by these events as well. This is not an easy time to be a faithful follower or a priest.
It is important, however, to put into perspective and situate in a context what is happening in our society. It is important too to separate emotion from facts. Unfortunately, the media in Ireland work from an agenda, which is against the role of Catholicism in this country. The constant highlighting of the same abuses, the same victims and the same stories are not accidental but for a purpose. This purpose is not the healing of the individuals, nor that of seeing a stronger Church.
The role of media is to entertain and present facts in a way that will have a shock value. Their purpose is always to increase listenership and readership, not the healing of those abused or the healing of the abuser.
The facts concerning child sex abuse are as follows and these are verified by academic study. Celibacy and paedophilia are not linked. Priestly paedophilia amounts to 0.3 per cent of the priestly population. Since 1996 the country's Catholic bishops have implemented mandatory reporting. There are no known paedophile priests in ministry in the country. Prison is not a curative environment for an abuser; an abuser can be helped in a clinical environment. Paedophilia is a psychosexual and sociological mindset. The majority of abuse happens in the home and among relatives. The majority of abusers are heterosexual and married. Most abusers are acting out abuse they experienced as children.
These facts are often blurred when the focus is solely on clergy.
Paedophilia is not a clerical pathology. The danger in the media using it as such is that those who were abused are manipulated for an agenda, while the focus is taken away from where abuse happens most.
The danger of false allegations and the damage done by these is heightened when the subject is portrayed emotionally and without rational facts. Abuse of children is a pathological problem that all society must tackle. When clerical abuse is highlighted unjustly and statistically incorrectly, the clergy become a scapegoat for the projecting of repressed unconscious guilt in the national psyche. Our cardinal has acted correctly in these issues and has addressed these problems since 1996. The repetition of the same cases highlights the fact that no new cases have emerged.
Let us be critical of the information fed to us. Information is never neutral, and so much of the church's great work, and the large percentage of good clergy, are being unfairly targeted at this time. - Yours, etc.,
Father ... BERNARD KENNEDY,
Sweetmount Drive,
Dundrum,
Dublin 14.
Sir, - Bishop Comiskey acknowledged that his big mistake was to listen to the lawyers and not to the victims. Despite their promise to meet with and listen to the victims, the bishops chose to have several civil and canon lawyers in attendance at their meeting in Maynooth, yet it seems that not even one victim representative was invited to attend that meeting.
Why not?
Canon Law is a purely human invention, originally designed to protect the possessions, fabric, rituals and reputation of the Church. It can be quite incompatible with the Gospel values of compassion and love. It seems that a recent directive from the Vatican requires cases of sexual abuse to be referred to Rome, and for a rule of secrecy to be observed to protect the "holiness" (sic) of the church.
I cannot for the life of me understand why the bishops don't just take a collective decision to ignore such instructions, along with any other precepts of Canon Law that are in conflict with the teachings of Jesus. If they did so, the Vatican would be quite powerless to do anything about it!
Vatican II declared the Church to be all the People of God, and not just the bishops and priests. If that is so, why, 40 years on, did the bishops (all celibate men) meet alone and behind closed doors at this the darkest hour in the history of Christianity in this country? I am aware that a small number of hand-picked advisers were present, but why was there still no provision for elected lay representatives to take part in such vital deliberations? Why was there not a 50/50 male/female representation? Does the Holy Spirit find her task a lot more difficult when those making the decisions are all celibate and all male? - Yours, etc.,
GAY BROCKLESBY,
Beechwood Lawn,
Dun Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
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Sir, - I was the victim of systematic sexual abuse between the years 1957 and 1960, though not at the hands of Catholic priests. My sympathies are 100 per cent with the victims, as the damage done is lifelong. There is not a day when the memory does not impinge, despite years of assorted therapies. Few crimes are so evil; no compensation can repay the misery, depression and guilt that haunts the abused.
James O'Brien (April 8th) asks what Jesus would have said, and appeals for justice and mercy for the perpetrators as well as the victims.
Luke 17, verses 1 and 2, spell it out: "It is impossible but that offences will come, but woe unto him through whom they come. It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones."
Of course, verse 3 continues: "If thy brother trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee saying, 'I repent', thou shall forgive him." However, apart from the vileness of the original abuses, it is the stunning lack of repentance on the part of the Catholic Hierarchy up to now that has been the most sickening aspect of this whole sordid story.
It looks as if a lot of millstones are due for hanging around a considerable list of necks. - Yours etc.,
ANTHONY O'BRIEN,
Ailesbury Road,
Dublin 4.
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Sir, - Cardinal Connell, whose metropolitan area includes Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford, recently stated to an interviewer in relation to the horrific sexual crimes in Wexford: "I don't know enough about it to be able to make the judgment you seem to be able to make".
If the Cardinal doesn't know "enough about it", may one ask why is this? The evidence is available and is incontrovertible. One's mind goes back to an occasion when the same cardinal attacked our President for participating at a service in St Patrick's Cathedral, saying that what she had done was a "sham". The dictionary defines this word as "a pretence". Is a quote from Matthew 7:3 perhaps appropriate?
"Why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" - Yours, etc.,
ULICK O'CONNOR,
Fairfield Park,
Rathgar,
Dublin 6.
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Sir, - Having, once again since 1993, publicly apologised to my parishioners for the pain and suffering caused, and still not dealt with by the Catholic Church in Ireland, I now make the same request to Cardinal Connell - as I did recently to Bishop Brendan Comiskey - to be accountable to his flock.
I earnestly request Cardinal Connell to immediately and publicly answer Marie Collins's heartfelt and disturbing questions and thereafter to respond with honesty to all the remaining unanswered questions on sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Ireland.
In fact, in order for the people of God to believe there is something concrete being done to assuage this situation, they need to witness the cardinals and bishops involved voluntarily co-operating in full with the inquiry by George Birmingham set up by the Minister for Health and Children.
Then, and only then, can healing take place both for the victims and indeed the Church in general. - Yours, etc.,
JACKIE ROBINSON PP,
Borris-in-Ossory,
Portlaoise,
Co Laois.
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Sir, - Should not the Catholic Church be added to the list of professional/business groups from whom the concession of self-regulation is being removed? - Yours, etc.,
MARY McKEOGH,
Greenfields Court,
Kilkenny.