No change among religious orders in protecting children

Three religious orders, including notorious paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth’s Norbertines, have shown no “real change from their historical behaviour” in terms of safeguarding children.

A series of reports by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCI) severely criticises three of the four orders reviewed.

The performances in the recent past of the De La Salle Brothers, the Norbertine order of priests, and the Nazareth Sisters are criticised for failing to “demonstrate any real change from their historical behaviour, in terms of ensuring good safeguarding practice or putting in place effective pastoral responses to complainants who have made allegations of abuse”.