Sir, – “Let’s forgive and forget and let’s get on with the future” is a phrase often trotted out by those eager to forget about their wrongdoing either by their past commission or omission. The criminal justice system does not accept such a plea by any defendant, yet in the continuing saga of clerical sex abuse bishop after bishop believes that it is enough to satisfy the demands of justice for them to say “sorry” for their failures to have stopped clerical sex abusers in their tracks if they had acted swiftly to protect children rather than to protect the institutional church.
I can understand the frustration of the many survivors of clerical abuse in the Raphoe diocese when the full truth behind their abuse has been whitewashed, bleached and starched beyond recognition of the awfulness they experienced.
The least I would expect from the incumbent of the Raphoe diocese, Bishop Philip Boyce, is for him to offer his immediate resignation, as this gesture might go some distance to show true repentance. Whether Pope Benedict, who clings to the mistaken belief that the church cannot err, would accept such a penitential gesture is another scandalous matter. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I seem to remember that in confession, one was not permitted to reserve sins. The same rule should apply in cases of abuse by clergy. All victims should be released from confidentiality clauses in any agreements they reached with church authorities. – Yours, etc,