THE Catholic bishops committee on clerical child sex abuse will publish its long awaited guidelines this afternoon. They have been in preparation since April 1994.
The 70 page document, to be presented at St John of God Hospital in Stillorgan, Co Dublin, will cover many issues. They include church procedures for dealing with abuse allegations; reporting such allegations to the civil authorities; pastoral support for victims and clerics involved; and dealing with the media. The issue of compensation will not be included.
One of its notable features will be a strong commitment by the church to co operate fully with the civil authorities in ensuring that all clerical child abusers are brought to justice.
It is understood that there is no suggestion in the guidelines that the church will carry out its own preliminary inquiry into an allegation before it is passed to the director of community care of the local health board who will in turn pass it to the gardai.
It is also expected that the guidelines will follow the example of those adopted by the English and Welsh bishops, and recommend that every diocese should appoint a special priest to be the bishop's representative in this area. All information about clerical child sex abuse cases would be referred to this priest.
. Assisted by a small team of experts, he would be responsible for passing any allegations' to those statutory agencies which have investigative powers.
The guidelines are expected to outline an elaborate structure to deal with allegations.
Some concern has been expressed privately about the potential bureaucracy involved, in this structure, and whether ft will be conducive to forging the crucial personal links necessary between the responsible priest and his team on the one side and the relevant professionals in the health boards and gardai on the other.