Sir, – As a sexually, and hence mentally, abused pupil in the early 1960s, my only solace as an adult, when the issue of clerical abuse came to full public attention in the mid-1990s, was that safeguards would then be put in place to try to prevent this sort of abuse happening.
As importantly, I also believed that any other children who did suffer the same fate after 1996 would not only be listened to, but that the paedophiles within the church responsible would be promptly and effectively dealt with. Watching the unfolding details of the Cloyne report on Wednesday night not only robbed me of this small comfort, but also awoke old feelings of insecurity, anger, mistrust and disgust.
To then read in The Irish Times (July 14th), that part of Cardinal Seán Brady’s direct response to the report was “If there is one positive thing to come out of this it is the confirmation that the church structures [on safeguarding children against abuse] have proven to be effective” beggars belief, adding a damnable insult to traumatic injury for all of those abused after 1996. My heart goes out to them.
Shame on the cardinal and shame, once again, on the Catholic Church. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The wake of the Cloyne report highlighted a major difference between how things operate in the US and in Ireland: In Ireland our Minister for Foreign Affairs is seeking a meeting with the papal nuncio, whereas in the US he would be summoned before Congress. Perhaps that also explains why we’ve never had a Bernie Madoff moment here! – Yours, etc,
A chara, – The release of the Cloyne report brought back to me my first vivid memories of a young priest working along with the Pope John Paul on his visit to Ireland in 1979. The memory is clear in mind. That priest who moved up the hierocracy ladder within the Catholic Church is Bishop John Magee.
I listened to a radio programme with tears in my eyes as a young woman told us that she was raped; and had the immense courage to talk about that and how she did/could not have her own children due to abuse which took place within the area that Bishop Magee controlled as the head of the church in that area.
For more than 20 years these awful abuse cases have been a constant worry to myself as a practising Catholic with young children. I have listened to the promises by the leadership in the church that things will change and are changing, but nothing has changed. What are we to do?
My family have played a small role in our local church with the hope that things can change. I have now lost all hope and I ask for guidance from the church as what to do now.
The church is involved in all aspects of my children’s education, I want this to end. Is there someone who speaks for the church who can reassure us all? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I think that Ministers Alan Shatter and Frances Fitzgerald are being quite irresponsible in making it mandatory on everyone to report suspicions or allegations of child abuse.
This opens the door to a regime where allegations, suspicions, perceptions, rather than serious and proven wrongdoing, will be enough to ruin many people’s lives.
Religious, medical, and psychiatric professionals have always understood the necessity of absolute confidentiality in dealing with those who come to them for help. That the Ministers so blithely override the wisdom of centuries on this matter savours of kneejerk reaction rather than mature consideration. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The Republic of Ireland should suspend diplomatic relations with the Vatican immediately. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Another report, but new lessons and some progress made. Now we know that the Vatican has seriously “interfered” with Irish policies and procedures at a statutory and church level.
We know bishops are “advised” from the Vatican, a supposed sovereign state, which thinks nothing of usurping the rules and regulations of another sovereign state. Now we know bishops lie, and need to ask, how many more bishops lied? Will the diocese of Cloyne’s individuals responsible for safeguarding children now be charged with a criminal offence?
The good news: new legislation will make cover-up a crime; and nobody will be allowed have their own regulations but the ones laid down by this sovereign state as regards child protection.
Finally, my view is the Vatican must be charged by the UN with complicity to undermine state process thus facilitating and allowing hundreds of Irish children to be abused.
I call for such response from the UN and ask for the papal nuncio to be expelled from Ireland.
As survivors of child abuse and clergy abuse, we, in this country, live with the legacy of Catholic indoctrination, but our voice is now loud. We say, enough! – Yours, etc,
Sir, – When will the long-suffering Irish shake themselves awake and realise that they have marched to Rome’s drumbeat for far too long? Our history has been skewed and slewed by this drumbeat.
All our major decisions down the centuries were taken in accordance with this Roman rhythm.
The fact that in 2011, nearly a century after “independence”, the State is finally getting round to passing legislation which asserts Irish law over Canon law makes one wonder if those who feared Rome Rule hadn’t a point, after all.
The Reformation limps slowly along on the arm of time. – Yours, etc,
A chara, – I wonder how well-considered is the Minister for Justice’s proposal to over-ride the seal of the confessional as part of his mandatory reporting legislation? Article 44 of the Constitution protects the practice of religion. Are we to have yet another referendum? And, if we did, what would be achieved? Only yet another unenforceable law, of which we already have too many. – Is mise,
Sir, – It has become obvious that the Catholic Church, from the Vatican down, has nothing but contempt for our mealy-mouthed politicians.
Short of plastering graffiti across the front of Leinster House with the words: CANON LAW RULES, they will stop at nothing to preserve their “special status” in Irish society.
Alan Shatter's inaudible mumbling on RTÉ's Prime Timetelevision will simply encourage more of the same from the robed rogues who destroyed the lives of innocent children.
Rulings or guidelines from Canon Law or Sharia law should have no place in a modern democracy. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Has Ireland no laws covering, “accessory after the fact”, “perverting the course of justice”, or “criminal conspiracy”? Let us not be too worried about getting a conviction. Wouldn’t it be just enough to give them the choice: plead guilty or defend your actions in open court? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Once more, Ireland is rocked to its very core by another report on clerical child sex abuse, lies and cover-ups.
The Cloyne report is yet another horrific and terrifying account of the sexual abuse of innocent children by the clergy and, in the case of Bishop John Magee, a complete and total disregard of the church’s own child protection policy. Bishop Magee was found to have lied, failed to report all complaints of child abuse brought to his attention and, to have delegated a great deal of the responsibility for the handling of these matters to the vicar general of the diocese who, it was widely known, did not agree with the policy of mandatory reporting of all complaints to the civil authorities.
Bishop Magee was unremarkably “not available” for interview on the Prime Time programme dedicated to this matter and was thought to be out of the country. How predictably convenient.
We have witnessed the publication of the Ryan and Murphy reports to date and heard the same predictable, pathetic apologies bandied about by cardinals, archbishops, bishops and clergy. The Cloyne Report documents abuse perpetrated as recently as 2009. It is a chilling and stark reminder that nothing whatsoever has changed.
Children continue to be abused by clergy and doomed then to live a life filled with memories that never fade, torment that never recedes. The time for apologies is over. The time for action is now. We the people must remove all investigative powers from the church for matters relating in any way to child abuse by bringing complaints directly to An Garda Síochána. And we must insist that Bishop John Magee is brought to account for each and every one of his actions.
The word church means “the people” and we the people must now take ownership and insist that enough is enough. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – It’s a sad day when a newspaper magnate demonstrates how to deal with the failings within his organisation in a swift and reasonably responsible manner while the head of a worldwide religion is quite unable to acknowledge continued failings within his domain, with a totally irresponsible attitude towards the most vulnerable in its care. – Yours etc,
Sir, – Could the Catholic Church take a pointer from the News of the Worldand have its last Mass next Sunday? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The publication of the Investigation into the Diocese of Cloyne demonstrates once again that the Holy See, whose diplomatic relations with Ireland have been in place for 82 years, obstinately refuses to provide substantive information and support to a State commission of inquiry into the clerical sex abuse of children.
Has the time therefore come for Ireland to abandon the courtesy of the Papal Nuncio being the Dean of the Diplomatic Corp? While this is largely a ceremonial role, it does confer an order of precedence on the holder, a distinguished honour that is now wholly incongruous with the evidence of the unfriendly stubbornness that has emerged in this report, and others, and the crucifying burden that victims of sex abuse must endure for the long-term as a consequence.
A change of diplomatic practice might signal, however modestly and discretely, that this Government really does mean business and, when requests for support and cooperation are treated with such casual indifference, there is a price to pay.
A reticent dean serves no useful diplomatic purpose and post-hoc expressions of “shock and dismay” are an insult when co-operation of such vital importance is whimsically withheld. – Yours, etc,