THE CLOYNE REPORT ON THE BISHOP AND THE VATICAN: TOUGH
NEW laws to force the disclosure of information on child sexual abuse
are to be introduced in response to another damning report on the
failure of the Catholic Church to protect child abuse victims.
The
withholding of information about serious offences against a child will
be made a criminal offence, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter announced
yesterday following the publication of the report on the handling of sex
abuse claims in the diocese of Cloyne.
Further measures, including a statutory child protection code, are to
be announced by Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald tomorrow.
The
report found that the Bishop of Cloyne, John Magee, misled the minister
for children by claiming the church’s guidelines for handling abuse
cases were being fully complied with.
It also found he falsely told the
Health Service Executive (HSE) that allegations of abuse were being
reported to gardaí.
In fact, two-thirds of complaints made between
1996 and 2008 were not reported to the Garda and no complaint was
passed to the HSE during this period.
The report accuses the
Vatican, through its opposition to the Irish bishops’ procedures for
handling child sexual abuse, of giving comfort to dissenters within the
church who did not want to implement them.
In a secret letter to the
bishops, Rome describes the 1996 rules as “merely a study document” and
not official.
Senior Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi issued
an emphatic “no comment” when asked about the Cloyne report. He did not
rule out making a comment at a later date, by which time the Holy See
would have had a chance to assess the report fully.
Bishop
Magee and the Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady apologised for the
church’s failures in relation to child protection in the diocese, while
Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan apologised to the victims involved in
three cases where the report was critical of the approach adopted his
officers.
Mr Shatter expressed his “sorrow and profound apology”.
The
“learning curve” used to excuse the poor handling of complaints in
earlier reports does not apply in Cloyne, the report points out. All of
the allegations were made after 1996, when new procedures were put in
place to deal with complaints.
As Ms Fitzgerald pointed out: “This
is not a catalogue of failure from a different era. This is not about
an Ireland of 50 years ago. This is about Ireland now.”
Bishop
Magee is described in the 341-page report as ineffective and faulted for
taking little real interest in the implementation of the guidelines on
child sexual abuse for 12 years.
He assigned responsibility to Msgr
Denis O’Callaghan, who was “uncommitted” to the guidelines, frustrated
their implementation and acted in what he perceived were the best
interests of the church.
“It is truly scandalous that people who
presented a public face of concern continued to maintain a private
agenda of concealment and evasion,” Mr Shatter commented.
President
Mary McAleese said the report showed that many lessons still had to be
learned in relation to the welfare and protection of children.
Bishop
Magee repeated earlier apologies for his failure to ensure abuse
victims were fully supported and responded to. While insisting he was
fully supportive of the 1996 church guidelines on abuse cases, he
admitted he should have taken a much firmer role in ensuring their
implementation.
“I am sorry that this happened and I unreservedly
apologise to all those who suffered additional hurt because of the
flawed implementation of the church procedures, for which I take full
responsibility,” he said in a statement. Bishop Magee was not in his
home yesterday and his whereabouts were unknown.
Msgr O’Callaghan
admitted that in some cases he became “emotionally and pastorally drawn
to the plight of the accused priest, to the detriment of the pastoral
response I intended to make to complainants”.
Cardinal Brady apologised and expressed his “shame and sorrow” at what happened in Cloyne.
He said he would not resign because he wanted to continue the work to safeguard children from abuse.
The
report describes the handling of “allegations, complaints, suspicions
and concerns” about 19 clerics. One of these, and the only person who is
named, is Bishop Magee.
He is alleged to have embraced a
17-year-old youth and kissed him on the forehead, which was deemed to be
inappropriate but not reportable behaviour.