Church covered up to avoid scandal and save good name and assets

CATHOLIC Church authorities in the Dublin Archdiocese covered up allegations of child sexual abuse over many years in order to avoid scandal and to protect the good name and assets of the institution, the Murphy Commission has concluded.

In a 720-page report, the Commission said the structure and rules of the Catholic Church had facilitated the failure of senior bishops to pass on details of such allegations to gardaí.

The Commission said it did not accept claims by senior Church leaders in Dublin that they were “on a learning curve” up to the late 1990s about the extent of child sexual abuse by priests. In a damning finding, the Commission said the archdiocese’s preoccupations in dealing with cases of sexual abuse to that point were “the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church and the preservation of assets”.