Fergus Finlay: Tribunal of inquiry could deliver justice for religious orders’ crimes

Justice demands full and open accountability, by or on behalf of people who committed awful crimes, and by the organisations that protected them

Blackrock College past pupils (from left) John Coulter, Corry McMahon and Louis Hoffman, with Philip Feddis joining via phone, at a joint news briefing with the Spiritans in Ireland, at the RDS. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA

LAST week I posed the question here: “Why do we still allow these religious orders to exist?” And I gave my own answer immediately — they are nothing more than vehicles for corruption and abuse, and they need to be shut down.

I got, shall we say, a mixed reaction. And the piece opened up a flood of personal correspondence that I’ve spent a good bit of the week reading. It’s been difficult reading, and I’ll come back to that in a minute.