Victims of clerical child sex abuse have reacted angrily to attempts by the former archbishop of Dublin Cardinal Desmond Connell to prevent legal documents from being handed over to a Government inquiry. Carl O'Brienand Genevieve Carberyreport.
Lawyers for the former archbishop secured an interim injunction in the High Court restraining the Commission of Investigation into Clerical Sex Abuse from examining the documents.
A full hearing on whether the documents are privileged or covered by a duty of confidentiality is scheduled for the High Court on Monday.
The One in Four support group criticised Cardinal Connell's actions and called on him to co-operate fully with the commission.
Deirdre Fitzpatrick, the group's advocacy director, said: "This cynical attempt to use legal manoeuvres to limit the work of this statutory investigation is a slap in the face to the women and men who have waited decades for truth, for justice and for some sense of closure." Abuse victim Marie Collins questioned why he was trying to prevent files being handed over to the inquiry if he had nothing to hide.
"What this latest action does is to vindicate the contention of so many victims over the years that the diocese was not willing to co-operate fully with the civil powers," she said.
"If Cardinal Connell succeeds in suppressing these documents, so relevant to their inquiries, it will hamper their work and any conclusions they might reach will have to reflect the lack of full disclosure by this senior representative of the church."
Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin Dr Eamonn Walsh, meanwhile, played down suggestions of a major rift between Cardinal Connell and his successor Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who agreed to hand over all relevant documents to the commission.
It is understood that the Dublin archdiocese only became aware for the first time on Wednesday that Cardinal Connell was planning the legal action, and that the action was confirmed to the archdiocese on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Dr Walsh insisted there was no conflict between the Archbishop and the Cardinal. Any differences, he said, were related to legal issues alone.
"My whole experience is to the contrary, that there is a warm relationship between them, it is warm and friendly and cordial. In the last fortnight, I was at a function where the Archbishop had invited the Cardinal as guest of honour with the Nuncio. It was a most enjoyable evening - anybody who experienced the two men together would say 'what's that about?' This is about legal issues not about personalities."
Dr Walsh said the archdioesce was very clear that it was co-operating fully with the inquiry.
"When you have people on legal niceties you are always going to go into a legal minefield where you have lawyers involved. We just leave that to the court now on Monday," he said.
It is understood the documents at the centre of the controversy contain correspondence between the Cardinal and his solicitor when he was archbishop of Dublin between 1988 and 2004.
Some letters relate to legal advice given after claims of child sexual abuse were made, while others include discussions on insurance.
Allegations of sexual abuse have been made against more than 100 priests who served in the archdiocese of Dublin. In response, the Government set up the commission in 2006 to examine the handling of allegations and Archbishop Martin agreed last year to hand over related documents.
Some 66,583 files have been given and the inquiry is due to finish in September.
Archbishop Martin has continually voiced his support for openness on clerical child sex abuse and the cardinal himself called for truth to bring justice to the sufferers.