Murphy report doesn't have to shock us but it should make an impact

By Padraig O'Morain
Monday November 23 2009
Herald.ie Opinion

Let's not underestimate the importance of Judge Yvonne Murphy's report into clerical child abuse in the Dublin archdiocese, due to be published this week.

Survivors of abuse will be disappointed that legal reasons prevent the naming of priests who committed crimes against children.

They will also be disappointed certain sections of the report will not be published because to do so could jeopardise ongoing or forthcoming prosecutions.

What's really important, though, is the impact the report will have on the behaviour of the Church in the future -- and also on the behaviour of other big organisations that affect the lives of vulnerable people.

That's more important than whether we will be shocked by the contents of the report or whether we will be disappointed by what is left out of this week's publication.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has assured us that we will be shocked by what we read.

Will we though? I doubt it. We have known for a long time that such abuse happened and was covered up.

We have known for a long time that every legalistic obstacle was put in the way of survivors' attempts to get justice.

And we have known for a long time that it was only relentless work by survivors, often with a sympathetic media behind them, that brought us to this point.

Judge Yvonne Murphy's report brings all of this together in a way that will make it impossible for the Church to deny the gravity of what happened.

There is no doubting Archbishop Martin's good will in all this but the church is a big organisation and we know from Ferns and other situations that it is highly resistant to anything it sees as contrary to its own interests.

Big organisations in general, as we know, tend to put their own interests before those of the people they are there to serve. That is why we need constant vigilance.

That, unfortunately, is why the Murphy Report is so important. Without inquiries like this, big organisations go on getting away with bad behaviour and will do it again and again.

And big organisations are very good at concealing what is going on.

They have many hiding places and they can put up many barriers, almost impenetrable to attempts by the media, by survivors and by others to expose what is going on.

The Catholic Church is the biggest and oldest of them all. It acted with a cavalier disregard for the children who were being sexually abused by a small number of rogue priests.

Like other big organisations, this one used to be trusted implicitly by its members. Unlike other big organisations, this one made a major point of attempting to suppress sexual activity by its members and by society in general.

For centuries, school children were warned by this Church that even to enjoy a "bad thought" was enough to get you thrown into hellfire after your death.

Outrageous

This makes it all the more outrageous that the Church was prepared to cover sexual misbehaviour (and that is putting it very mildly indeed) by that small number of rogue priests.

We know all about that breathtaking disregard for duty. What we don't know is what the future holds. But unless we learn the lessons of the past, the sins of the past will be repeated. That's as true of the Catholic Church as it is of any other big organisation.

The Murphy Report is not really about the past. It is really about ensuring those lessons are learned and that vigilance against sexual abuse by trusted people becomes a core and continuing part of how it does its business.

Despite the suppression of chapters and of names for legal reasons, this report will contribute hugely to that. Let us hope we have seen an end to obstacles to its publication.

- Padraig O'Morain