DAVID GRANT,
Madam, - In the welter of pronouncements, disclaimers, evasions, casuistic hedgings and downright untruths that surrounds the matter of proposed investigations into the sickening history of child rape and violation by Catholic clergy over the years, there seems to me to be a hard core of resistance now emerging, spearheaded by pronouncements from clerical experts and ex officio professors of canon law, which rings strongly of the old adage: "Roma locuta est; causa finita est".
A retired professor of canon law would have it that allegiance to his church's canon law shall take precedence over the laws of our land - even where the matter is of the gravity of rape and buggery of children. It seems that this law requires that the perpetrators of such monstrous crimes shall not be made known to our duly appointed guardians of law and order in this sovereign State. The Church must protect and care for these criminals; its first duty and allegiance is so to do.
This arrogant and astounding belief would seem to be the underpinning of all the obfuscation, ducking and dodging on the part of our most senior churchmen which daily and nightly fills our newspapers, radios and television screens. And all the while the pleas of gravely damaged and grossly wronged victims of these foul deeds cry out for recognition and justice.
The nub of the matter would seem to be the opening up of all records in Church hands covering all the years (God knows how many at this stage) over which these appalling abuses were inflicted on helpless children. It is daily becoming more and more certain that - despite assurances from the cardinal and senior spokesmen - such records as exist will still be protected on various spurious grounds of confessional secrecy, confidentiality, etc.
This is intolerable.
In recent years the State has taken powers to seize relevant documents and evidential material in those spectacular cases of payments to politicians and others deemed to be in receipt of monies on foot of corrupt dealings.
We have learned of raids carried out on business premises and lawyers' chambers to take possession of documentation necessary and relevant to legal and tribunal proceedings. The State has empowered itself so to do. And a very good thing too.
Why, therefore, can not the State in like manner raid and seize all such suspect and relevant documentation held by the Catholic Church authorities in its enormous archives? Are the ruined and broken lives of dreadfully damaged men and women to be seen as of lesser value than the apprehension of corrupt politicians and businessmen who are accused of making off with large sums of money and ownership of lands? This course would remove, at a stroke, all the difficulties which, we are led to believe, beset those senior churchmen whose ways are governed by their canon laws - laws to which our State should afford no consideration when crimes of such magnitude and horror are being investigated. And until all such documentation and evidence can be laid before the courts and the public of this land, so long will justice be denied to those terribly wronged and still suffering victims of the Church's ministers and servants.
The time for hand-wringing and lame excuses is past. Justice has been far too long delayed. It now seems on the edge of being denied. This must not happen.
Yours, etc.,
DAVID GRANT,
Mount Pleasant,
Waterford.
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Madam, - If a person supplies a bishop with information about child sexual abuse by a priest, that person, by definition, already possesses that information. In so far as there may be an obligation to bring such information to the attention of the civil authorities, that person also lies under this obligation. The obligation cannot be avoided by bringing the information to a bishop. The duty of bringing the matter to the attention of the civil authorities remains.
No doubt bishops, like other people having authority, have an especial duty to observe the law. Nevertheless all citizens have this duty.
So one may wonder about the position of medical doctors, psychotherapists, social workers and others who receive information of child sexual abuse, of the abuse of drugs, of the assault of a spouse.
And what of journalists who receive such information? - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL NOLAN,
Harmony Avenue,
Dublin 4.
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A chara, - After 10 years of heavy targetting of the clergy - sometimes correctly - I wonder when the Irish media will begin to address with similar zeal the plight of the 95 per cent of children who are abused but not by clergy. The media - RTE in particular - have managed through massive coverage of clerical abuse to give the impression that clergy are the main culprits. Not true. - Yours, etc.,
SEÁN SULLIVAN,
Dublin Road,
Dundalk.
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Madam, - We keep hearing about Canon Law and civil law. Is there any such thing as moral law? It is evident to me that the Catholic Hierarchy has canon, civil and moral reality entirely confused.
It is time for the real priests of this country to rally their flock and eject their legalistic bosses for once and for all. - Yours, etc.,
EOIN FLYNN,
Pace Avenue,
Clonee,
Co Dublin.
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Madam, - With regard to the many painful paths on which we Irish have had to walk recently, may I express a wish?
In reproving what we perceive to be monstrous behaviour, let us beware that we do not turn into monsters ourselves! - Yours, etc.,
SHEILA GRIFFIN,
Curragraigue,
Tralee.