Sea change in Catholic Church at last evident
MANY Catholics breathed a collective sigh of relief this week upon the publication of the independent audits into the handling of allegations of sexual abuse against priests in six Catholic dioceses. The reports, damning as they are about egregious failures in the past, show that a definite cultural shift has happened in the Catholic Church when it comes to ensuring that the welfare and protection of children trumps all other concerns such as the avoidance of scandal and the preservation of the reputation of the Church. It’s been a long time since there was much positive news to report in the sphere of child safeguarding but the progress, belated as it undoubtedly is, is a real transformation.
The audits — carried out by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) — reveal the same depressing pattern of behaviour as the judicial reports into dioceses in Ferns (2005), Dublin (2009) and Cloyne (2010). Time and again little or no attention was paid to the needs of those most vulnerable members of the Church who allege they were abused by those the Church raised up to teach, govern and sanctify them (to quote Canon Law). In the Derry audit, to choose one example, the NBSCCC found that in the past “priests about whom there were clear concerns were not robustly challenged or adequately managed and problems were often ‘handled’ by moving them to postings elsewhere.
