Just seven bishops respond to secret oath policy query

JUST seven of the 26 Catholic bishops have responded to a question on whether or not their diocese ever operated a secret oath policy.

The question was put by the Irish Examiner to each of the 26 dioceses on Monday morning, but by last night only seven had managed a reply.

They were the Dublin Archdiocese, the Diocese of Cork and Ross, the Tuam Archdiocese, the Diocese of Clogher, the Diocese of Killaloe, the Diocese of Waterford and the Diocese of Cloyne.

Five of those who responded stated there had been no silencing of victims or secret oaths.

The Dublin Archdiocese stated allegations in the past had been dealt with extensively in the Murphy Report, while the Diocese of Cloyne refused to comment as the Commission of Investigation into child protection in the diocese is still in progress.

It emerged recently that, 35 years ago, Cardinal Seán Brady attended two meetings with child victims of sex abuser Brendan Smyth at which they were forced to sign an oath of secrecy.

Meanwhile, the HSE confirmed it is awaiting child protection policies from a number of bishops as part of its audit of each diocese and how it deals with child protection.

The audit had been due to be completed on December 22 last year, but was delayed when Phil Garland, the newly appointed assistant national director of children and families social services, sought further information from the bishops.

Mr Garland wrote to each diocese insisting for the “revised” audit to be returned to him by registered mail on or before Friday, January 8, 2010.

However, according to the HSE, a week after the expiration of a strict deadline for the HSE audit into the Catholic dioceses, half of them still had not returned the required information. After following up with the dioceses, the last of the information requested was received by the end of February, but, to date, some dioceses have not supplied the HSE with a copy of their child protection policy.

The next step is to cross-reference the names of all of the accused and complainants with files held by An Garda Síochána; and the HSE said it does not envisage further delays and the final report should be ready next month.

The diocese of Kildare & Leighlin, however, has pre-empted the publication of the audit by giving details of its own contribution on its website stating:

“The HSE has conducted an audit of all dioceses in regard to our respective records of clerical sexual abuse. The following are the numbers in regard to the priests of Kildare & Leighlin which our diocese detailed in the revised HSE audit in January 2010.”

The statement goes on to say that of seven priests against whom allegations of child sexual abuse were made, two were alive and five are deceased.

It says there are no criminal or civil cases pending against any priest of the diocese.