Release date of abuse report is delayed

Suspect priests were shielded, report reveals

Irish Independant

THE long-awaited report on how Cardinal Desmond Connell and other members of the Catholic hierarchy in Dublin handled child sex abuse allegations has shocked senior officials in the Department of Justice.

Officials who have seen it say it is "damning" and "doesn't pull punches" as it documents how suspect priests were moved from one parish to the next, shielded from the rigours of the law, according to sources.

The report on child abuse in the Dublin archdiocese was submitted to the Minister for Justice last week but a publication date is uncertain. The Government has asked the Attorney General for legal advice on publishing the report because it names at least two priests who face prosecution on child abuse offences.

There are fears their trials may be prejudiced.

"The report is pretty damning of the Catholic hierarchy," said the source.
Dermot Ahern, the Minister for Justice, is believed to be studying the report this weekend, now that his controversial Criminal Justice Amendment Act has been signed into law.

"The minister wants the report to be published as soon as possible. There is a legal process in place and the last thing the minister wants to see is a trial being prejudiced because of premature publication of the report," said a spokesman for Mr Ahern.

The Commission of Inquiry into the Dublin archdiocese examined the responses of 19 bishops to the alleged sexual abuse of 450 children by Catholic priests.

There were so many cases of alleged child abuse that the commission focussed on a representative sample of 46 priests, investigating in detail how they were handled by church superiors.

Dr Diarmuid Martin, the Archbishop of Dublin, has warned that the report will shock and horrify the public once the contents become known. He has said that since 1940 more than 400 children had been abused by at least 152 priests in the Dublin area.

"It is likely that thousands of young people across Ireland were abused by priests in the period under investigation and the horror of that abuse was not recognised for what it is," he said.

The commission of inquiry was established in 2006 and was chaired by Circuit Court Judge Yvonne Murphy. The overall cost of the Commission of Investigation to date is €3.6m, a figure which covers administration, staffing costs and legal fees.



July 26, 2009
By John Burke

The report into clerical sex abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese will not be published before the end of August at the earliest, The Sunday Business Post has learned.

The report is understood to detail the widespread cover-up of child abuse in the archdiocese, with a number of abusers moved from one ministry to another after church figures were informed of complaints by parents and victims.

However, it is understood that the Commission of Investigation was surprised by the relatively small number of people who presented themselves for interview to the inquiry team during its investigations.

One source who has viewed sections of the report in a preliminary form described it as ‘‘harrowing’’, but said it was unlikely to have the same impact on the public as the Ryan report into clerical abuse in industrial schools and detention centres.

The inquiry team, headed by Judge Yvonne Murphy, sent copies of the report to Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern, Attorney General Paul Gallagher and Minister for Children Barry Andrews last week.

Ahern will not decide what action he may take in relation to publishing the report until he receives advice from Gallagher.

Two advocacy groups, the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and One In Four, have written to Ahern asking him to delay publication of the report due to the pressure on their help services following the release of the Ryan report.

The Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation was set up in March 2006. It has investigated how child sex abuse allegations against a representative sample of 46 priests were handled by 19 bishops in Dublin between January 1, 1975, and April 30, 2004.

The report contains separate chapters on each of the 46 clerics. Three chapters of the report relate to three clerics against whom criminal charges have been brought recently.

The three criminal cases are not expected to be concluded before early next year.

Among the government’s options are to obscure the names of the clerics and their parishes; to give them pseudonyms; or to publish 43 chapters of the report and delay the final three for later publication after the men’s cases have been processed through the courts.

Ahern has said he is anxious that the matters dealt with in the report ‘‘are put into the public domain as quickly as possible’’.

't Moet toch werkelijk niet gekker worden.
Nog effe, krijgen we het bericht dat de regering de moed niet op kan brengen die Diarmuid Martin had...
Wat een politicus.


En Here God, wat stinkt het!
Fernando Lugo had er zijn stage moeten gaan lopen...

Als het niet zo diep en diep tragisch was zou je in een onbedaarlijke rolling gaan:
de Kerk trapt de Staat de Kerk uit. En grijpt de macht. Over het onderwijs.
Nog iemand peultjes?