‘We must face the failures of the past’

ARCHBISHOP Diarmuid Martin has insisted victims of paedophile priests must not be “fast-tracked” through a healing process and criticised Catholics who say their church should move on from grief about the child abuse scandals.

His comments came as the Vatican claimed the Pope sees the sex scandals rocking Catholicism around the world as a “test for him and the Church” and cardinals rushed to Benedict XVI’s defence amid accusations he played a role in covering up sex abuse scandals.

Archbishop Martin told a packed congregation at Holy Thursday Mass in St Mary‘s Pro-Cathedral in Dublin there could be no short-cut in addressing the past.