Pope’s Irish trip ‘reopened child abuse wounds’
Martin admits Church ‘failed’ attack victims
POPE Francis’ visit to Ireland reopened “wounds of the past” for clerical sex attack survivors, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin admitted yesterday.
He revealed the Catholic Church received five new abuse complaints in July against Dublin diocesan priests – compared with nine for all last year.
The cleric told the National Child Safeguarding Conference in Kilkenny: “The size of the march at the Parnell Square Garden of Remembrance shows just how much anger and how much hurt still remain.”
Archbishop Martin admitted the Church “failed” its victims and must “never allow ourselves to close our hearts to the harshness of dark days”.
He added: “The dark days have not vanished for survivors. We were reminded with a jolt this summer how much those who were abused are still hurting.
“With the discussions around the Papal visit, many people with whom we had been in contact years ago got in touch with us again. The wounds of the
past had been reopened and they were asking for support, assistance and also reassurance we still viewed their complaints with the same seriousness as we did when we first heard them.” Archbishop Martin praised survivors like Marie Collins and the late Christine Buckley for being “difficult” and speaking out about the scandal. He said: “At the time, victims and survivors were rightly angry and determined to bring the harsh realities into the public eye.
“The Church all too slowly began to open up to them, not just as victims and survivors, but also with the realisation without their participation and protagonism we would never understand and address the challenge.”
Archbishop Martin blamed a culture of secrecy for allowing the abuse to continue.
He said: “One of the central elements that permitted the crisis to arise and to spread was the fact people kept things to themselves and evidence was stockpiled and not shared.”
The dark days have not gone away for all of the survivors DIARMUID MARTIN YESTERDAY