Child protection - Society won’t accept old practices

The Catholic Church’s new guidelines on child protection, announced by the Archbishop of Armagh Dr Seán Brady this week, have been welcomed in some quarters but strongly criticised in others as a retrograde step.

In accordance with the guidelines, the Church will appoint a director of child protection. This individual will immediately inform a bishop or a religious superior of any allegation of child abuse against members of the clergy.

An independent National Board for Child Protection will be set up - comprising of parents and professionals working in the areas of childcare, psychology, theology, law and education - to decide what action should be taken in relation to priests accused of child abuse.

Surely it is time that the Church recognised once and for all that the civil authorities are supreme in legal matters in a republic.

It is not to the superior, the bishop, the archbishop, the cardinal, or even the Pope to whom they should first report any criminal allegation, but to the civil authorities - in this case An Garda Siochána.

In the light of the Church’s mishandling of a whole series of clerical abuse cases over the years, it is simply intolerable to think that society would permit a reversion to the old practice of allowing Church leaders to decide whether allegations of clerical paedophilia should be reported to the police.