Offenders were never properly punished

As time goes by and one has time to reflect, what seemed like an unsurmountable problem turns out to be just a molehill, but sometimes to your chagrin, the reverse can occur.

For over three weeks our airways and other media have been inundated with the exploits of whistleblowers and penalty points, etc. Our police have been accused of acting as judge and jury and you know the rest.

Way back in early 2000 our Church had a problem: Its ranks of clerics were swollen with an increase in the numbers of paedophiles and child abuse was rampant. The ordinary citizens may have been horrified but that inbred respect that they had for the Church and its representatives prevented them from reporting what was taking place to the gardaí and they reported to the bishops instead.

They were rebuked by the bishops and accused of troublemaking.

By this time the bishops realised that sooner or later this confrontational attitude would fail to keep information about child abuse by clerics a secret and it was decided to keep the victims of the paedophiles happy by bribing those who had suffered. Estimates of the reported cases was gathered and what it would cost. the figure of €1.3bn was staggering and beyond the Church’s means, so they said.

Bertie Ahern’s cabinet were asked to assist in thwarting justice by going half-and-half in the bribery of the victims and the prevention of the police in bringing the offenders to justice.

As members of Ahern’s Cabinet, both Mícheál Martin and Willie O’Dea could now tell us which side of the child abuse scandal they saw that allowed them to have no qualms about not bringing the offenders to justice?

Richard Prendergast

Rathcormac

Co Cork