Bishops told of sex abuse scandals' lessons
The child sex abuse scandals that rocked the Catholic Church have proved a painful learning experience, a senior bishop said today.
Bishop of Limerick, Dr Donal Murray, said that over the last decade the Church had learned a great deal about the measures needed to respond effectively to the issue of child sexual abuse, and importantly prevent further incidences.
“We wish to share what we have painfully learnt. The cry for healing needs to be heard from all victims of child sexual abuse – whether abused by priests or others,” the bishop said at St Patrick’s College in Maynooth.
The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference reflection for Lent said the pain of those who suffered abuse as children was at last beginning to receive the public attention and understanding it deserves.
The Catholic Primate, Dr Sean Brady, who launched the publication, said the upcoming Lenten period was a time for reflection.
“This makes it an appropriate time for the Church to reflect on its journey of becoming more faithful to the Gospel in its response to the issue of child sexual abuse,” Archbishop Brady said.
The Church was hit by revelations of child sexual abuse during the 1990s after people began to step forward and highlight incidences involving individual priests stretching back many years.
“We bishops, like all members of the Church, are very painfully aware of the dreadful betrayal of trust and the scandalous contradictions that are involved when a child is abused by an adult,” the bishops’ publication – ’Towards Healing’, a Lenten pastoral reflection on child sexual abuse – stated.
“This betrayal is vastly greater when that adult is a priest or religious.”
The conference urged that all members of the Catholic Church have a responsibility to acknowledge and offer help to those who suffered sexual abuse.
The publication stated that in the past one of the main failures to tackle abuse was that a priest who was assessed or treated, and believed to no longer be a threat was assigned to a new parish.
The Lenten pastoral reflection, which is being sent to groups representing victims of child sexual abuse, stated that the Church has learned that dealing with matters discreetly can mean failing to take necessary steps.
“A certain misplaced loyalty may contribute to the tendency to keep matters secret in organisations as well as within families. It has not been an easy lesson,” the Bishops’ Conference stated.
The publication said this natural feeling of reluctance on the part of families and others to come forward must be confronted by the overriding need to ensure that an abuser is identified and dealt with by the law.
Bishop Murray said steps towards healing could include ongoing counselling or educational provisions if a person’s education was marred by the abuse.
The Lenten message said that anything that could allow child abuse to happen and be hidden must be addressed.
The bishop urged people throughout the Church community with resources, such as counselling, should consider coming forward to help others.
The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Advisory Committee on Child Sexual Abuse by Priests and Religious was first convened in 1994 to identify guidelines for Church policy in cases of abuse or suspicion and a framework for response was then drawn up in 1996.
Last year the Bishops’ Child Protection Office began training 20 participants from nine dioceses of the Church as trainers to develop safe practice procedures for dealing with young people within parishes.
