Cardinal and abuse victims prove jaw-jaw is better than war-war

“To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war,” Winston Churchill once said, and last week’s meeting between victims of child sexual abuse and Cardinal Desmond Connell proved the point yet again.

While the cardinal has met with abuse victims before, his five-hour meeting on December 30 with Marie Collins and Ken Reilly was something new. For the first time, the public learned that such meetings could bring satisfaction to both sides. And the Church's critics, who for so long viewed it as mean-spirited and legalistic in its dealings with abused people, finally saw something to make them change their minds.

At the meeting, the diocese declared its intention to let the gardaí review its files on sex abuse. Even more significantly, it asked Collins and Reilly for their advice on how to proceed with the management of child sexual abuse issues. Further progress was made last Friday when the former victims met with David Kennedy, chairman of the diocese's Independent Advisory Panel on Child Sexual Abuse.