On -- -- a government-commissioned report compiled by a former Irish Supreme Court judge delivered a damning indictment of the handling of clerical sex abuse in the Irish --. The report revealed over 100 cases of child sex abuse in the small diocese, involving a number of clergymen, including Monsignor --, the former head of the National Catholic seminary, --.
Among the facts revealed were
- the "inexplicable" failure of Bishop -- to exclude clearly unsuitable candidates from the priesthood;
- his failure to report incidents of proven sexual abuse to the legal authorities and his failure to acknowledge that abusers needed to be kept from children;
- the failure of his successor, -- to report incidents of abuse and remove abusers from positions where they worked with children.
Among the cases revealed were
- the rape of teenage girls-- on the altar of a church by one priest;
- the use of blackmail by another priest to force children to perform sex acts on him;
The report was also highly critical of the failure of the -- (police) to properly investigate incidents reported, and in particular the disappearance of one file detailing serious incidents of clerical sex abuse. The local health authorities also failed to protect children even when aware of allegations.
There was however praise in subsequent debates and among survivors of abuse of the actions of the new Apostolic Administrator (acting bishop) for instituting wholesale reforms, including the toughest anti-abuse rules in any diocese in the Catholic Church, and also his willingness to hand over all files and all information to the inquiry. Victims' spokesman and himself one of the victims of one of the abusers, -- praised the administrator and compared his actions with the inaction and incompetence of his predecessors.
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Forthcoming Dublin Inquiry and Irish Parliamentary comment
Following November confirmation concerning a subsequent child sexual abuse Inquiry for the Diocese of Dublin, on --, --, TD --, former Government Minister and member of the -- -- governing alliance, spoke at length in the Irish Parliament concerning the necessary changes required following the Ferns report.
O' Donnell stated that it was clear to her, and to everyone, that the Ferns report would prove to be entirely typical of any such report carried out in any Irish Diocese, and that therefore the relationship between Church and -- in Ireland must now change from that of deference towards complete separation .
O' Donnell characterised the Catholic Church in Ireland and as a whole as a secret, un-accountable, and anti-democratic organisation at variance with the State through its inability to uphold or adhere to civil law. She called for immediate financial auditing of all Church assets in Ireland .
Liz O' Donnell also called for termination of deference to supposed Church morality in the fields of IV treatment, stem cell research, abortion, homosexuality and Third-world birth-control programs. Ireland does not possess civil legislation for the protection of children, and the references to separation of Church from State arises in the context of providing such legislatory enaction.
Media programming containing debate upon the Roman Catholic sex abuse cases has focused particularly on the fact that Diocesan insurance policies against financial reparation claims by the victims were opened from -- throughout Ireland. The contradiction between this action and the complete inaction and failure at civil reporting, coupled with continuance of ministry by the very numerous offenders, has led to a point in Ireland where even the Church's senior theologian is unable to continue the general hierarchy claim of being within a "learning curve" at that time. On state broadcast, it is admitted that indeed this contradiction is as indefensible as the crime and the seeking of insurance against sex abuse settlements overshadows the validity of what O' Donnell referred to as Catholic Church "denial" and "self-preservation" .
The question of "canon law" and its quasi-legality in a modern state has been democratically raised amidst general popular shock that abusive rapist pril continuance of their abusive behaviour (as was the case in the seminary). The leading Irish theologian Father Twomey, on the same evening as the O'Donnell intervention, was unable to publicly affirm, on State broadcast, that any one of the 26 diocesan bishops of Ireland would, in 1987, have understood or recognised that child sexual abuse (statutory rape) was a civil crime. This contrasted weakly against Deputy O' Donnell's assertion as to the necessity for legal accountability of the Catholic Church in Ireland in 2005.
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Flawed policies
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Abusers moved from location to location
Some bishops have been heavily criticized for moving offending priests from parish to parish rather than seeking to have them stripped of their faculties. Many dioceses submitted priests accused of sex abuse for intensive psychotherapeutic treatment and assessment, with the priests only resuming pastoral duties when the bishop was advised by the treating psychologists or psychiatrists that it was safe for them to be so assigned.
In response to questions, defenders of bishops' actions suggest that in re-assigning priests for duty after treatment they were acting on the basis of the best medical advice then available. Critics have questioned whether bishops are necessarily able to form accurate judgements in serious circumstances on the nature of the recovery of a priest based on advice from professions widely considered to have shifting opinions.
Critics have also condemned bishops for acting as business managers who viewed the issue as a disciplinary and medical matter for the priest and were concerned about secresy for optimal financial management rather than the interests of the victims.
"Ancient Catholic tradition codified in the Church's canon law, has long held that certain grave sins by their nature disqualify a man from further public exercise of the priesthood. The issue is not retribution; the issue is iconography. A priest who sexually abuses children has grossly disfigured himself as a living re-presentation of the Christ who asked that the little children be brought to him[Luke 18:16]. A priest who sexually abuses post-pubescent minors in a habitual way is almost certainly guilty of the sin of seduction as well as the specific sin of sodomy or fornication. Don't habitual sins of this sort also render a man incapable of manifesting that spirtual fatherhood that is the essence of Catholic priesthood? These are fundamentally theological questions, not simply questions of "Church discipline."... When a bishop has neglected his fatherly responsibility to his priests, when he has been accustomed to treating clergy sexual abuse as a disciplinary matter only, and when the pressures of the therapeutic culture begin to weigh on him, a noble virtue, compassion, can be transformed into a vice - episcopal irresponsibility. The bishop fails to understand that some acts make a man unfit for any priestly ministry. And so the bishop recycles into his parish (or to other dioceses) men who are both threats to their potential victims and irreparably disfigured icons.".--(pp105-106)
An example of the policy of shifting offenders from place to place is demonstrated in the case of Fr Ramos. Typical of these examples he was reassigned to another parish after treatment. Below is a copy of the letter reassigning him after his treatment
