I hope today’s report will help to reassure everyone that while important challenges remain, the Catholic Church in Ireland has come a long way in addressing the failings of the past. I welcome in particular the report’s two clear conclusions: “Firstly, that children should be safer today within the church than they once were. Secondly, those that seek to harm children should feel much less secure.”
I also welcome the news that 2,356 individuals have been trained and are now acting as child safeguarding representatives in parishes across the country, with coverage of all parishes to be achieved in the coming months. This represents an extraordinary achievement by any standard and is a remarkable example of lay participation in the life and ministry of the church. I want to thank all those who give of their time, talent and expertise in safeguarding children. Building whole communities that actively keep children safe, together with effective structures of accountability and transparency, is the key to the future of child safeguarding within the church and, indeed, within society as a whole. Each one of us has to take responsibility for keeping children safe and for addressing the attitudes and practices which had such tragic consequences for so many children in the past.
There is no room for complacency. The tragic experience of the past reminds us that constant vigilance is needed as well as full adherence to robust, comprehensive and ongoing systems of accountability. As Pope Benedict XVI said to the bishops in his pastoral letter to the Catholics of Ireland: “Only decisive action carried out with complete honesty and transparency will restore the respect and goodwill of the Irish people towards the church to which we have consecrated our lives. This must arise, first and foremost, from your own self-examination, inner purification and spiritual renewal.”
What a load of rubbish, as an Irish citizen, I find it somewhat puzzling that Cardinal Brady claims so boisterously that the Church has come a long way, as though the clergy and hierarchy were in the vanguard of prosecuting the abusers who were themselves Lay-Brothers, Priests and Nuns. Now they have to appoint 2,356 “child safeguarding representatives” to make sure the children don’t get diddled by Fr. Touchy McFeely, or whoever. In any other enterprise this wouldn’t have been tolerated. The talking-points have been sent-out by Rome to divert the responsibility, ultimately, of the Vatican itself. Now they are claiming that Roman Catholic Bishops are not employees of the Vatican. The few bishops who have stepped-down have done so only after public awareness and empty pews sent a clear message to the Pope that the Irish people were not going to stand for this any longer.
Er – bishops aren’t employees of the Vatican, either legally or theologically. I take it that you’re not a Catholic, or you’d know that.
EAS,
Canonically, who do they represent, but the Vatican? Who do they belong to?
You might find this interesting: http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/