Church inaction will not be tolerated - Minister

REACTION:THERE HAS been strong reaction to disclosures yesterday in the annual report of the Catholic Church's National Board for Safeguarding Children .

Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald said she was disappointed to learn of the shortcomings and severe difficulties in co-operation which the board experienced.

“Anything less than full co-operation with a board, whose purpose is to investigate the church’s compliance with child protection procedures, cannot be tolerated,” she said. “It is imperative that all elements of the church co-operate with internal and external bodies investigating allegations of child abuse. As Minister, I am determined to take every measure possible to secure the safety and well being of children.”

Abuse victim Marie Collins said “the breathtaking hypocrisy of the the hierarchy promoting their national board’s review of child protection in their recent pastoral Towards Healing while at the time of writing they were using legalities to obstruct that review, is shocking.”

She said “telling the world that they are committed to implementing fully all child-protection policies, while at the same time insuring that non-compliance by any bishop cannot be made public without the permission of that bishop, is a farce.” Ms Collins said mandatory reporting “must become law and anyone including priest or bishop ignoring it has to be prosecuted fully”.

Andrew Madden, also abused as a child by a priest in Dublin, expressed “considerable concern” that the board’s review was stopped on legal advice. It was “shocking” that the board could not comment publicly on its findings and that publication of any such information was possible only with the consent of the head of the diocese or authority. He urged the Minister for Children “to put the State’s ‘children first’ guidelines on a statutory basis as a matter of absolute urgency”.

One in Four executive director Maeve Lewis said the board’s annual report “highlights yet again the failure of the Irish Catholic Church to fully commit itself to transparent child-protection measures”. Perhaps “we need to expand the Murphy commission’s work to every diocese and congregation in the country if we are ever to appreciate the full extent of clerical sexual abuse”, she said.

In a joint statement the Catholic bishops, Cori and the Irish Missionary Union, which sponsor the board, yesterday welcomed its annual report. They expressed their gratitude to board members for their “untiring commitment to the safety and welfare of children in the church and for their unstinting professionalism in helping us all to meet the highest possible standards in this area.”

The report indicated “significant progress in many key areas” and they were “fully committed to working with the board to consolidate the progress made to date”, they said.