Connell admits diocese failed victims

CARDINAL Desmond Connell has admitted that the lack of a support service for victims of clerical child sexual abuse in the Dublin diocese was a serious failure.

The Cardinal announced yesterday that the diocese was now working with abuse victims to establish a support service to meet their needs.

Advising the diocese on the new support network, currently at planning stage, are Marie Collins and Ken Reilly, both victims of abuse.

“I now realise that the diocese will only be able to provide an appropriate service to those who have suffered abuse if it has been designed from their perspective,” the Cardinal said yesterday.

In the last 50 years, 35 priests from the Dublin diocese have had allegations of child abuse made against them. The diocese has been approached by 107 victims. Twenty nine compensation claims have been settled to date, with 30 ongoing.

The support service, once established, will become the responsibility of the Director of the Diocesan Child Protection Service.

Cardinal Connell said victims’ feelings and experiences must be allowed to contribute to the shape and provision of the service and the way it is monitored once it has been set up.

A support service originally set up by the diocese in 1996 was not used by victims and was eventually abandoned a few years ago.

Because no alternative service was established in the diocese many victims were left with either inadequate support or no support at all.

Ms Collins said they were very upset to find there was no support system in place. “The diocese had been telling everybody they had a support system in place when they hadn’t,” she said.

The diocese had a responsibility to provide support for victims, she said. “We are now working with Cardinal Connell to put in place a service we believe will meet the victims needs.”

Ms Collins said she welcomed Cardinal Connell’s admission that the diocese had failed to meet the needs of victims.

“It should not have happened in the first place but I do welcome the fact that the cardinal has admitted the failure and is doing something about it.”

The Cardinal said he was profoundly grateful to Ms Collins and Mr Reilly for their courageous support of efforts to provide the vital service.

Ms Collins and Mr Reilly are meeting the Cardinal on an ongoing basis in relation to other church issues.