Cardinal heckled over sex abuse apology

Cardinal Desmond Connell was jeered at Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral last night as he repeated an earlier apology over his “failure to deal effectively” with priests who abused children.

The Cardinal repeated the statement while celebrating a mass to celebrate the 24th anniversary of the election of Pope John Paul II.

A spokesman for Cardinal Connell confirmed there were calls of “too late” from worshippers at the 6pm mass.

The Cardinal has faced calls to resign after RTE screened a television programme which reported that the Dublin Archdiocese faced 450 legal actions as a result of claims of clerical sex abuse.

Prime Time, broadcast on Thursday night, detailed accounts of cases of abuse by eight priests of which it said at least six bishops became aware.

After the broadcast Irish Survivors of Child Abuse, a group representing victims of clerical sexual abuse, called on Cardinal Connell to resign over his handling of the allegations.

The group said the Cardinal’s position was now “untenable“, and that the programme proved what victims “had been saying for years” – that there had been collusion at the highest level in the Catholic Church.

Today the Sunday Tribune added its voice to the calls, saying in its editorial that Cardinal Connell should “put his pride aside and resign“.

On Friday politicians demanded an independent inquiry into the abuse allegations.

Fine Gael spokesperson for justice, John Deasy, called for a Garda inquiry, saying he was not sure how adequate the Church inquiry would be.

He asked: “How can anyone expect the public to trust an inquiry conducted by the Church, given their historical collusion in hiding and denying these crimes?”

His calls were echoed by Labour spokesperson on justice, Pat Rabbitte, who described the disclosures regarding the extent of allegations as “truly shocking” and added that Church authorities had serious questions to answer in regard to how they dealt with complaints which were drawn to their attention.

“What we now know is of such seriousness that I believe it is no longer appropriate to leave the matter entirely to the Church authorities,” he said.

He referred to the case of the Bishop of Ferns, Dr Brendan Comiskey, who resigned earlier this year amid criticism of the way he handled allegations surrounding priests in his diocese.

Mr Rabbitte said: “When similar allegations were raised in regard to the Ferns Diocese earlier this year, the Minister for Justice announce the appointment of Mr George Birmingham to examine what sort of inquiry might be appropriate in that case.

“In the light of the new disclosures I believe that the remit of the Birmingham inquiry should now be extended to cover the Archdiocese of Dublin and that he should be asked to report back as early as possible with a recommendation as to what further form of inquiry is now appropriate.”