Human Rights in Ireland

In the aftermath of the Ferns, Ryan and Murphy Reports, the 400-page Commission of Investigation Report into the Catholic Diocese of Cloyne into the handling of clerical child sex abuse in the primarily Co Cork Catholic diocese was published today. The period covered by the Cloyne investigation was from 1 January, 1996 (date of the introduction of the Irish Catholic Church’s first guidelines on child protection) to 1 February  2009. The resulting report (in PDF form here) contains 26 chapters and includes findings on all 19 priests who faced abuse allegations there over the period investigated. It examines the manner in which allegations of clerical sex abuse were handled by the diocese and Church authorities, as well as by An Garda Síochána and health services. On Friday of last week the president of the High Court Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns decided that parts of chapter nine are not to be published for now because of pending criminal proceedings against one priest.

The Report  follows the publication of an earlier internal  church report by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSC) which was severely critical of practices in the diocese. The report criticised the way in which the Diocese of Cloyne and Bishop John Magee had handled a series of complaints made by five people against two priests. Predictably, today’s report is similarly excoriating. The Irish Times summarises the findings as follows:

• The Vatican was “entirely unhelpful” to any bishop who wanted to implement procedures for dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse in the Irish church.
• The response of the Diocese of Cloyne was “inadequate and inappropriate”.
• Primary responsibility for the failure to implement agreed child sexual abuse procedures lies with then-bishop of Cloyne John Magee.
• Bishop Magee “took little or no active interest” in the management of clerical child sexual abuse cases until 2008, 12 years after the framework document on child sexual abuse was agreed by the Irish Bishops’ Conference.
• That some child sexual abuse allegations were not reported to gardaí was the diocese’s “greatest failure”.
• There were 15 cases between 1996 and 2005 which “very clearly” should have been reported by the diocese, of which nine were not.
• Given the diocese’s knowledge of clerical sexual abuse and its effects on complainants it was wrong of the diocese not to put in place a proper support system for complainants.
• The response of health authorities was “adequate”, but the commission adds it is not convinced the State’s laws and guidelines are sufficiently strong and clear for child protection.
• The report is largely complimentary about the role of gardaí, although it does raise concerns about the force’s approach in three cases.

What is most striking, aside from the fact that the report found there were concerns raised about almost 8% of the 163 priests serving in Cloyne in 1996, is the fact that nearly 20 years since clerical child abuse emerged as one the biggest issues in Irish society and over ten years since the State’s official apology for its role, the response by the relevant authorities is so consistently inadequate. Perhaps the most appalling element of the Report is its finding that despite repeated assertions on its part, the Diocese did not implement the procedures set out in the Church protocols for dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse. It repeatedly failed to report all complaints to the Gardaí, while only one complaint was reported to the health authorities until 2008. The Report found that the response of the diocese to complaints and allegations of clerical sexual abuse was inadequate and inappropriate. The report draws attention to one case where despite Garda assurances, the Commission found no evidence of police investigations into allegations by two women against a single priest. The Commission stated it was concerned and it does not accept there was a proper investigation into the complaints against the priest named as ‘Fr Corin’.

The report does point out that improvements have taken place in Cloyne since 2008 – significantly, Bishop Magee stood aside as Bishop of Cloyne in March 2009 and resigned in March 2010. Symptomatic, and perhaps explanatory of the response is the statement issued by Monsignor Denis O’Callaghan , Bishop Magee’s second-in-command in Cloyne . Admitting that he did not support Church policy, adopted in 1996 in the wake of the Brendan Smyth scandal, that all child sex abuse complaints must be reported to health services and gardaí for its pastoral shortcomings, he stated as follows: “I acknowledge and I am sorry that, in responding to the allegations of abuse, I, in some instances, became emotionally and pastorally drawn to the plight of the accused priest, to the detriment of the pastoral response I intended to make to complainants”.

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, and the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs have issued a joint statement on the publication of the Report. In interview, Minister Shatter said: “Many of its findings are for others to account for. But for any failings on the part of the State through the years, we express our profound sorrow. This report is about just some of those who, as children, were abused by people they respected as arbiters of right and wrong – whose complaints were handled atrociously – and who now find that some of the promises that were made that other children would be kept safe were empty.” The Government said it will set up a vetting bureau, with new laws enacted in the autumn to allow the sharing of soft information on people wishing to work with children. There are further schemes to bring in laws making it an offence to withhold information on crimes against children and vulnerable adults

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