Irish Abuse Outrage as "Painful Surgery" - Bishop

A newly appointed Irish bishop,  Liam McDaid of Clogher, has described the crisis of abuse which has rocked the church worldwide, but especially in Ireland, as "painful surgery", which was necessary, but has brought much-needed healing. It's a striking analogy, and like any surgery, it has certainly been painful and was clearly necessary. Has it brought healing, as he suggests? I don't know about Ireland, but from a broader perspective, I'm sceptical. It takes time to get over from major surgery, and recovery is never guaranteed. On the surgery executed on the church, the jury is still out. Has the surgeon's knife cut deep enough? Were the cuts and stitches made the correct ones? Only time will tell.   Before reaching a verdict and signing off on a clean bill of health, we must continue to watch the patient closely, and monitor all symptoms.

“Painful surgery” good for Church, says new Bishop

The newly ordained Catholic Bishop of Clogher Liam McDaid has said that the Church was in need of “painful surgery” in order to cleanse it of the iniquity of having been responsible for years of child abuse. 

The Bishop said that the abuse scandal which rocked the Church brought the institution to its knees, ‘but perhaps that isn’t a bad thing,’ he added.

He invited fellow clergymen and lay-person to “repentant return to the well of salvation” as he prayed for a new direction for the Church in Ireland.

A native of Bundoran, Co Donegal, Bishop McDaid said “society has forced us in the Irish church to look into the mirror, and what we saw were weakness and failure, victims and abuse. The surgeon’s knife has been painful but necessary. A lot of evil and poison has been excised.

“There comes a time when the surgeon’s knife has done what it can, is put away, and a regime of rehabilitation for the patient is put in place.

“We have been brought to our knees, but maybe that is no bad thing. It can bring us closer to the core of the mystery.”

 He continued: “So while society keeps the mirror in front of us and rightly checks that we are sincere in our intentions and efforts towards rehabilitation, can I invite you, priests and people of the diocese of Clogher, to join me in a repentant return to the well of salvation.

“The journey will include, for many, facing the enormous challenge of forgiveness.

“Despite his intense suffering, Jesus forgave those who mocked, spat at, scourged and abused him. One of the co-crucified could not bring himself beyond abuse and excluded himself; the other rose to embracing forgiveness, and was welcomed into the kingdom. There are many painful experiences in life where only forgiveness can bring closure.”

-Irish Times 

Accused priest given victims file in new church scandal

The Catholic Church are currently investigating claims that the child protection delegate in the diocese of Clone handed over a confidential file containing evidence of child abuse to the priest at the centre of the allegations.

Fr Bill Bermingham was appointed child protection delegate for the the Clone diocese by the Catholic  Church's National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) in 2008. The NSBC is currently seeking to meet with Birmingham to determine his motivations behind the handing over of the confidential file to the accused.

It was revealed that Birmingham took an informal statement from a woman last year and gave a copy of the statement to the accused priest before he was questioned by the police. It has also emerged that several other priests saw the confidential statement.

The alleged victim was made aware of the leaking of her statement and subsequently lodged a formal complaint to the NSBC a few months ago. Archbishop Diarmuid Dunne has been informed of the incident as has the Catholic Church's clerical abuse helpline, Faoiseamh and victim support group, One in Four.

According to the Irish Examiner, Birmingham has not responded too any requests for an interview and the Clone diocese has refused to comment on the situation until the Dublin Archdiocese report is published in the Autumn.

One in Four chief executive Maeve Lewis said she was "horrified by" the actions of the Clone diocese but refused to make any further comments as the victim is one of her clients.

"This action may not have broken specific Church protocol but it is a horrific betrayal of a victim," said Lewis.

Birmingham was appointed child protection delegate for the Clone diocese after child protection standards were found to be "inadequate and in some respects dangerous".

The victim who wishes not to be named released a damning statement:

 "Nothing has changed whatsoever in the past 18 months despite claims to the contrary. "I feel like I have been run over by a number of trains in the way I have been treated by the Church in the past year. 

"I am so angry and appalled any information about me could be passed on to anyone else. Yet I am told no criminal law was broke. Where is the justice for the likes of us?"

(From Irish Central)

Cardinal Brady "Failed in His Duty", But Vows to Stay On

The head of the Irish Church's own child protection watchdog has found that Cardinal Brady clearly failed in his duty to safeguard children. Even so, the Cardinal has vowed to stay on.

From the Irish Times:

CATHOLIC PRIMATE Cardinal Seán Brady was wrong in his handling of 1975 child sex abuse investigations, the head of the church’s child protection watchdog said yesterday.

Ian Elliott, chief executive of the the National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC), also said it “would have been helpful” had the cardinal disclosed details of the matter sooner than their disclosure in newspapers last March.

In 1975, the then Fr Brady conducted a canonical investigation into child sex abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth in Kilmore diocese and swore to secrecy the two teenagers involved, whom he believed.

He passed a report on the matter to his bishop, but did nothing more. Smyth continued to abuse children for a further 18 years.

Asked yesterday whether he believed the then Fr Brady had dealt with the matter correctly, Mr Elliott said: “No. He didn’t handle it properly from the safeguarding of children point of view. You could not say that the action taken prioritised the safeguarding of children.”

He was “quite sure if you posed the situation to the cardinal today . . . other actions would have been taken.”

Mr Elliott said he had written to Cardinal Brady following his request on Monday that the NBSC prioritise Armagh archdiocese in its new audit.

(Read the full report)

Meanwhile, the Cardinal insists he will not resign. From the Belfast Telegraph:

Irish victims of clerical abuse have expressed disappointment that Cardinal Sean Brady is to stay on as Primate despite their calls for his resignation over his role in the 1975 cover-up of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.

Maeve Lewis, executive director of the One in Four support group, said Cardinal Brady had allowed many other children to be sexually abused and their lives to be devastated by his failure to report Smyth to the authorities.

“Cardinal Brady states that he has consulted with survivors,” she said. “He certainly has not listened to what they have said.

“Survivors who are in contact with One in Four are very clear that they need senior Catholic churchmen to be accountable for what they have done — and to resign.”

Ms Lewis said that if Cardinal Brady was genuine about overseeing change, he should challenge responses victims meet when they attempt to bring their experiences to the attention of authorities.

Irish Church 'took nine years to reveal abuse case'

From the "Newsletter"

THE Catholic Church in Ireland waited nine years before disclosing a case of alleged child abuse, the News Letter has found.

In March 2006, then Archbishop Sean Brady stated publicly that the Church had disclosed all allegations of child sexual abuse against clergy to the police.

The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) has told the News Letter that the Church had been aware of at least one of those cases of alleged abuse for nine years before Cardinal Brady led moves to disclose it.

A spokesman for the PPS told the News Letter that the complaint in question "was made to the Catholic Church in 1997 – the Catholic Church reported the matter to police by way of letter dated 7th March, 2006".

A spokesman for Cardinal Brady said they did not know what case the News Letter was asking about and that the PPS had refused to discuss it with the Church for data protection reasons.

"As a result we are unable to identify the specific cases listed in your letter and therefore to provide you with an accurate response to your query," said the Church spokesman.

The News Letter asked the PPS why the Church was not investigated for potentially withholding information on child abuse for over nine years.

A PPS spokesman responded that it is the PSNI's responsibility to investigate and that the complainant had asked for no further action to be taken.

The PSNI declined to make any specific comment on the apparent nine-year delay in reporting the case.

Instead, the News Letter was directed to a PSNI statement which affirmed that the PSNI would take its lead from the Northern Ireland Executive in supporting any inter-departmental response to clerical child abuse. A new dedicated PSNI team under the Serious Crime Branch was to take over clerical child sex abuse investigations from the start of this month.

The Northern Ireland Executive asked Health Minister Michael McGimpsey to take the lead on such abuse last year. In December, he announced he would submit a paper to his ministerial colleagues about the way forward.

A spokeswoman for Mr McGimpsey said yesterday that the Executive was still considering the paper.

Accountability: Benedict Accepts a Bishop's Resignation

It has taken a while, but Pope Benedict is expected to accept a further Irish bishop's resignation.

From BBC News:

Pope accepts Bishop Moriarty's resignation

Pope Benedict XVI is expected to accept the resignation of the Bishop of Kildare on Thursday.

Bishop James Moriarty offered to resign in December following publication of the Murphy Report into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

Bishop Moriarty, who served as an auxiliary bishop in Dublin from 1991-2002, was barely criticised in the Murphy Report.

He said, however, that he "should have challenged the prevailing culture".

Bishop Moriarty told the Irish Catholic newspaper he did not anticipate resigning when he first read the Murphy Report because he was not directly criticised.

New beginning

"However, renewal must begin with accepting responsibility for the past," he said.

(Read the full report)