State has been slow to get own house in order

NOT all those who support the Fine Gael Party, nor all members of that party, approve of the tone of the Taoiseach’s recent address to the Dáil.

The Taoiseach has, rightly, in trenchant terms condemned the diocesan administration in Cloyne for utterly failing to deal with accusations of clerical child abuse.

While acknowledging that nothing can heal the pain of the sufferers, it was very necessary that the hurt of the victims be recognised by the state in the person of its political leader, the Taoiseach. All right thinking people are appalled by the contents of that report and the pain and shame felt by us, the Irish people, that some in our midst perpetrate such appalling misdeeds under the cover of the official Church, is felt even more by the great majority of priests and religious who have done nothing but good in the name of Jesus Christ throughout their lives.

The Taoiseach would have been better served by his speech writer applying less colourful language and more research. I do not know of any priest or religious who has not been personally offended by the language in the speech. The charge that “the Cloyne Report excavates the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism, the narcissism that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day” is headline grabbing stuff that bears little relationship to the facts. Indirectly, the finger of blame is pointed at Pope Benedict, while anyone, with even a cursory knowledge of Joseph Ratzinger’s past knows that he is, and was, a strong advocate of reporting alleged child sexual abuse to the appropriate civil authorities. It is wrong to place the failing of Cloyne on the Pope and the Vatican. The Catholic Church has guidelines in place since 1996, which are far more stringent than those of the state. It is not that the Church guidelines failed the people of Cloyne, but rather that the diocesan administration in Cloyne failed the people by not implementing them.

Little attention has been paid to what the Taoiseach said in respect of the failings of this state. Here, his language is more moderate in tone, while acknowledging the failure of successive Governments over many years. The Irish Church put into place guidelines in 1996. Fifteen years later this state has yet to get around to drafting, let alone legislating ,the necessary laws providing for the mandatory reporting of child abuse cases. Further, it seems powerless to bring the Health Service Executive to book for its obvious and numerous failures.

Michael C Larkin

Killarney

Co Kerry