Abuse victims disappointed at outcome of talks

THOSE who work with the victims of rape have expressed disappointment at the outcome of emergency talks in the Vatican that addressed the clerical sex abuse crisis in the Irish church.

During two days of meetings, the Pope reprimanded Irish bishops for a “failure... for years to act effectively” to allegations of child sex abuse by clergy.

The Rape Crisis Network expressed disappointment at “the tone” of the meeting.

Executive director Fiona Neary said: “On the day that we hear the papal nuncio to Ireland has declined an invitation to appear before a government committee, we also hear the Pope make reference to ‘the weakening of faith as a significant contributing factor in the sexual abuse of minors’. It is shocking to the rape crisis sector that the systemic failures of the institutions of the Catholic faith are not mentioned as being a significant contributory factor in the sexual abuse of minors.

“It is clear that the most senior levels of Catholic institutions remain unable to take responsibility for their collusion with the abuse of children in Ireland.”

One in Four said expectations had been high but little had come of the meeting. “We are also disappointed that the Pope has offered no explanation for the failure of the Vatican and the Papal Nuncio to cooperate with the Murphy Commission,” said One in Four director, Maeve Lewis.

“Instead, the Vatican has accepted no responsibility for its role in facilitating the sexual abuse of children, referring only to the Irish Church, and only vague declarations of intent for the future are included.”

Andrew Madden, who was abused as an altar boy, criticised the Pope for failing to publicly acknowledge the findings of the Murphy report into allegations of the rape and abuse by 46 priests in the Dublin Archdiocese.

Victims’ support groups were looking for the Catholic Church to respond to both the Murphy investigation and the Ryan report on institutional abuse “in an intelligent, coherent and meaningful way and they (the church) have completely failed,” Mr Madden said.

“It would appear that submissions made by some survivors of sexual abuse by priests have been completely ignored.”

He also expressed disappointment that a number of bishops cited in the report have not yet resigned or been removed from office.

Mr Madden added that “it would appear that self preservation and damage limitation for the Catholic Church is still a higher priority for Pope Benedict and the bishops than the concerns and wishes of people who had been sexually abused as children by priests in the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin over many decades, and that hardly represents change.”

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the Pope “shares the outrage” over the abuse and noted that he had “already expressed profound regret”.

Asked if the issue of resignations came up, he said “it was not addressed”.

Rev Lombardi also defended the papal nuncio in Ireland for refusing to testify to politicians about decades of systematic cover-ups by the Church hierarchy.

A Vatican statement said the Pope called the sexual abuse of children “a heinous crime” and a “grave sin which offends God”.