The fact that Bishop Magee
took “little or no active interest” in the management of clerical child
sexual abuse cases in Cloyne until 2008 meant the diocese’s functions in
the matter of clerical child abuse were exercised by others.
“The
principal person involved was Msgr O’Callaghan”, the Cloyne report says.
Msgr O’Callaghan “kept all the files relating to complaints of child sexual abuse in his house”, it said.
“He
did not approve of the procedures set out in the ‘Framework Document’.
In particular he did not approve of the requirement to report to the
civil authorities,” the report said. This 1996 document outlined the
Irish Catholic Church’s child protection guidelines.
The Vatican
attitude to that document “was entirely unhelpful”, it said, and
“effectively gave individual Irish bishops the freedom to ignore the
procedures which they had agreed and gave comfort and support to those
who, like Msgr O’Callaghan, dissented from the stated official Irish
Church policy.”
In a letter circulated to all Irish bishops in
January 1997 the Congregation for Clergy described the Irish bishops’
guidelines as “merely a study document” which contained matters “which
appear contrary to canonical discipline”.
The congregation also felt the
issue of mandatory reporting to the civil authorities gave rise to
“serious reservations of both a moral and canonical nature”.
Resting
on such support, the report found that, in practice, implementation of
Irish Bishops’ framework document “was stymied” in Cloyne by Msgr
O’Callaghan.
It also found that “the greatest failure by the diocese of
Cloyne was its failure to report all complaints to the gardaí.
Between
1996 and 2005, there were 15 complaints which very clearly should have
been reported by the diocese to gardaí”.
That figure, it said, did
not include “concerns or cases already known to the gardaí, even though
some of those also should have been reported”.
When abuse was
reported to gardaí, “one of the most unusual and unacceptable aspects”
was “the reporting by Msgr O’Callaghan of the complainant’s name but not
the perpetrator’s name in the Fr Caden case.
The attempt by Msgr
O’Callaghan to have a particular garda deal with this case was correctly
disregarded by the Garda superintendent.”
Msgr O’Callaghan told
the commission he did not see a 2004 report critical of the
implementation of the framework document in Cloyne, prepared by Dr Kevin
McCoy, until 2009 and only a summary in 2004.
The evidence was that
Msgr O’Callaghan “almost certainly was given a copy of the full report
in 2004” and also got “an oral briefing on the report in 2004”, the
report said
In a statement issued yesterday afternoon Msgr O’Callaghan said he is “deeply sorry” that he failed so many victims of abuse.
As
diocesan delegate, he accepted his “primary role” in the failure to
implement church protocols for dealing with allegations of child sexual
abuse against priests.
“It is important for me to state that I was
personally appalled by the abuse that had occurred. To be confronted
with the reality of knowing that some of my colleagues abused children
is dreadful,” he said.
He regretted that “in responding to the
allegations of abuse, I, in some instances, 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.”