Thursday, July 14, 2011

Bishop says church has learned from abuse

The Bishop of Cork and Ross, Dr John Buckley, has said he believes that the Catholic Church has learned how to deal properly with allegations of clerical abuse and with the victims of that abuse

Dr Buckley was speaking in Cork ahead of the expected publication later this week of a report of an investigation into how the neighbouring Diocese of Cloyne dealt with allegations of abuse there.

Bishop Buckley has said his own diocese had responded to all allegations of abuse and had reached out to victims through counselling.

The Bishop has said that the Catholic Church now had a network of trained child protection volunteers throughout the country and the system was 'monitored, independent and robust.'

Justice Minister Alan Shatter was due to publish the Murphy Commission report on Wednesday into the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations in the Diocese of Cloyne.