Church of believers betrayed by self-serving, self-gratifying elite

THE issue of clerical abuse in the Irish Catholic Church has unearthed depths of depravity and corruption that those of us who soldier in the ranks of the lay faithful can scarcely fathom.

It is not that the lay faithful who have served on committees and ad hoc groups within the church were not entirely unaware that something was a bit whiffy about the structures and modus operandi of the organisation. Where power is given to individuals with little or no checks, accountability or limits of tenure, it is a reasonable deduction that this power will be abused in some way by a significant number of those individuals.

Until such time as the structures of organisation and decision-making are honestly and humbly looked at there will be no fundamental change. While it can be safely said at this point that the welfare of children is no longer a concern where the Catholic clergy is concerned, if for no other reason than the extreme wariness and caution of parents and guardians in this regard, that is not to say that any fundamental lessons have been learned by the hierarchy or that power will not continue to be abused in other ways.