New Sex-Abuse Scandal Divides Irish Catholics

DUBLIN, Ireland — Ireland's most prominent Roman Catholic leader, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, questioned Tuesday whether all of his fellow bishops adequately protect children from sexually abusive priests.

Martin became the first Irish Catholic leader to break silence over a new report into allegations that two priests molested several teenagers, chiefly in the 1990s, in southwest Ireland _ and the local bishop, John Magee, didn't tell police quickly and fully about it as he was supposed to do.

Recurring scandals on the coverup of decades of abuse by Catholic clergy have rocked Ireland since 1993, when an Irish government collapsed over the issue.

Catholic leaders have since struggled to contain the financial and moral damage through a series of initiatives that encourage people to report abuse, most recently by forming an independent commission that investigates church handling of complaints.

But the first major report from the chief investigator, Ian Elliott, was withheld from publication for six months by church and government authorities. It was published late Friday _ when Ireland's media were consumed with a banking scandal _ and received little immediate attention.

The report found that Magee and his senior advisers in the County Cork diocese of Cloyne fielded a range of complaints from parishioners about two priests from 1995 onward _ but told the police nothing until 2003 and little thereafter. The report said Cloyne church authorities appeared to be solely concerned about helping the two priests, not protecting the children of the area.

One priest, who was accused of molesting a younger priest when he was just a boy, was encouraged by Magee to resign. But the investigation found that the bishop shielded the abuser's identity from police _ and considered such concealment "the normal practice" for the church.

The other priest, a career guidance counselor in a convent school, was accused by several teen-age girls and grown women of molesting or raping them since 1995. One complaint came from a woman who had a consensual sexual relationship with the priest for a year _ then saw him develop an intimate relationship with her teen-age son.

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The report did not identify the priests and they have never faced criminal charges.

Magee faced rising calls Tuesday from lawmakers and pressure groups to quit. He refused to comment.

But Martin _ a former Vatican diplomat who wields the most political clout in Ireland's Roman Catholic hierarchy today _ suggested that the Cloyne bishop should step aside for new leadership and help restore public confidence.

"He should make the decision which is in the best interests of child protection," the archbishop told Ireland's state television station, RTE.

And in a carefully worded statement, Martin stressed he was "extremely concerned" that the problems uncovered in Magee's diocese could be more widespread. He called on all of Ireland's bishops to confirm whether they were following the Irish church's decade-old official policy of openness and investigation.

Martin said his own archdiocese, home to a third of Ireland's more than 3 million Catholics, was committed to protecting the public from abusers. But he noted that Dublin's churches also hosted hundreds of priests from other dioceses and orders whose priests answer to their own leaders, not him.

Martin said the church's anti-abuse policies had a "purported" common status in every diocese, but he had "serious doubts ... concerning the coherence and consistency of approach."

The archbishop called on other bishops and religious orders to confirm to the investigator, Elliott, that they are committed to reporting abuse reports to police and other authorities "in a uniform way." If Elliott could not confirm these commitments, Martin warned, he would impose "his own system of accountable child protection" on all Catholic clergy living or working in his sprawling constituency.

___

On the Net:

Abuse report, http://tinyurl.com/axxfof

Martin statement, http://tinyurl.com/9s2v6k

Comments

[seadickrun]

And Rick Warren compares homosexuals to pedophiles? Shouldn't he clean up Christianity before taking on the rest of humanity?

[TruthAndTheory]

Maybe they need to get real and not force priests to be inhumanly celibate.

[sonoffestus]

The Catholic Church is nothing more than a world wide criminal organization. Rape and extortion seem to be high on their priority list. Any other organization who aided and abetted crimes against children would be immediately shut down and it's leaders off to jail. Anyone who still supports the Catholic Church are themselves criminals. The Pope and the Church have ZERO moral authority. They are a sad sick joke.

[heal57]

I totally agree with your post and I went to 12 years of all-girl catholic school. ZERO moral authority!!

[susquehannastudio]

Catholic priests should be gelded when they graduate from seminary.

[harrymellon]

Satan is alive and well in the highest echelons of the Church. If anyone has read The Franklin Affair, then you know it is happening in politics too.

[rudiy]

It is not ironic that abuse happened but the reaction of the Church, especially in Ireland, the UK in general and Europe and the people in those countries who bragged that abuse was only an American phenomena. It never did and would never happen in Europe. Those who point to other religions and leaders who fell because of this type of abuse do so only as a misdirect. Abuse is bad but no Church has done more to coverup than the Catholic Church.

[karmafriend]

"Recurring scandals on the coverup of decades of abuse by Catholic clergy..."

the catholic stance is that the abuse is a new thing that only started a few decades ago.

bullcrap!

my father would have been 83 and he was abused when he was an alterboy.

i have no doubt that the abuse of children has been going on for centuries, maybe since the beginning.

i often wonder if many of the women who were accused by the church of witchcraft, then tortured and killed, had accused priests of abusing their children.

[Babysnake]

Mormon Bishops who "counsel" their flock also have been involved in a epidemic of "afairs" with those they counsel.
The police are seldom called. Just like the catholics...
It is handled "internally".

[SimJack]

The Catholic Church has been running the longest Ponzi scheme in human history, to their greater enrichment, and the pit bosses are nothing more than hypocritical closet perverts.

[rehtul]

Will they ever declare moral bankruptcy?

[Ed438]

The Church has long acted as though it didn't have to answer to anyone but itself as though its record of "good works" excuses all the rest of its "sins".

That the large number of "Holy Fathers" who have been caught with their pants (or dresses?) down have been exposed to the public (and obviously a larger number of these pedophiles have not been exposed and ought to be.) doesn't seem to faze them and they and their fearless leader continue to be moral arbiters by supporting anti-gay marriage amendments and making statements about what others may or may not do (they themselves may, of course, do as they like!).

I agree; let's start taxing these creeps and if it bankrupts the Church, I for one can easily live with that!

Wasn't Jesus supposed to have talked about those "hypocrites who pray in the Synagogue" (and we can easily substitute "Church" for "Synagogue"!)?

[sparkey]

If the catholic church pays the families enough money, this, too, will be swept under the rug. The priests will go to another church, just as they always have, and the church members will be asked to pay even more to help the church care for the poor. Stupidly enough, the congregation will do it.

[Flagrantlover]

It's never goona end until they embrace human sexuality and respect it. All of it!!!

Here's a great (free) film on the subject: http://www.comingsoon.cz

Or watch it on Google:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-152460894465175765&hl=en

PERHAPS THE ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS FILM FOR ATHEISTS?

[Kiba]

Sex is a fundamental drive. It should come as no surprise that repression can lead to very serious problems.

[heal57]

That's true, but one can masturbate; he doesn't have to get his rocks off on a child.

[EvenSteven]

Priests. Celibate Priests at that. Yuck!

[mjeffn]

and.....in the US anyway, religions should be tax free because....................why?

[SpaghettyIrish]

Because of the mistaken idea that religious groups bankroll charities, when actually they bankroll cadillacs and lexuses.