Church indicted on response to clerical sex abuse

HALF of Irish people believe the Catholic Church has been permanently damaged by its response to complaints of clerical child sex abuse

Also, four out of five people surveyed said the Church had failed to deal with the issue properly, according to a damning new report.

The study, called Time to Listen, which was commissioned by the Irish Bishops' Conference, said four out of 10 people did not trust the Church to safeguard children and half said the Church could not be trusted to manage clergy.

Researchers found that half of people surveyed bishops said their perception of the Church had been damaged by the its response to complaints of abuse.

The study, carried out Department of Psychology at the Royal College of Surgeons, said victims of abuse and their families were treated with insensitivity, disbelief and inaction when they complained of abuse to the Church.

Victims said Church members were more concerned with protecting the Church's name and defending it from legal action than caring for them.

Launching the report, Archbishop Seán Brady said: "We apologise once again to the victims and their loved ones for the hurt caused, the damage done, and the failures in pastoral responsibility on our part in the handling of these cases."

He said half of the report's 19 recommendations had already been implemented and that the other half were under active consideration, including a recommendation for a professional code of conduct for clergy. Archbishop Brady president of the Bishops' Conference, said the thorny issue of how to deal with convicted clerics would be top of the agenda when they met in Maynooth next week to discuss the report.

Professor Hannah McGee, report co-author, said: "There's chance for the Church to redeem themselves in the future. It depends on cooperation with the Laffoy Commission and with the State agencies in general. John Kelly of Survivors of Child Abuse said the report vindicated what they had been saying for years that the Church was more interested in its own name than victims.

But he said the Church must address what happened in the past and, as part of that, cooperate fully with the Laffoy Commission.