PRIEST ABUSERS CAN’T BE TRACED
Church’s safeguarding body makes astonishing admission as Taoiseach says all f iles should be released
THE Catholic Church’s independent safeguarding body has admitted it is ‘impossible’ for it to know whether clerical abusers referred to in the Murphy and Ryan reports still have access to children.
The shocking admission comes as a growing international scandal engulfs the Vatican days before Pope Francis’s visit. The Taoiseach said all relevant sex abuse files in Ireland should be
handed over to the State, when he spoke to the Irish Mail on Sunday yesterday.
Furthermore, former education minister Michael Woods, the man who brokered the controversial €128m redress deal with the religious orders, told the MoS he has ‘no regrets’ over the muchcriticised deal, which has left the State with a €1bn bill.
These revelations come as survivor groups have told the MoS that the State and the Church have ‘absolutely failed’ to safeguard the welfare of children, and that a litany of protocols introduced and childprotection measures adopted by the Church, following the various childabuse commissions in the Noughties, have been a ‘smokescreen’.
Earlier this year the MoS revealed that alleged abuser Brother Aidan Clohessy, who was involved in the redress scheme that accompanied the Ryan Commission, was left in place as the head of St John of God Malawi with direct access to children.
This was many years after the organisation told authorities here that he did not have access to children.
Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington DC, yesterday pulled out of this week’s World Meeting of Families amid controversy surrounding his handling of sexual abuse in Pennsylvania.
Files should be turned over to the State
He was due to deliver the keynote address on Wednesday at the WMOF event in the RDS.
The WMOF is the reason for Pope Francis’s 36-hour visit to Ireland – which begins on Saturday morning.
This is the latest sign that a Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing decades of sexual abuses by more than 300 priests, and cover-ups by bishops, may overshadow the first visit by the Holy See to Ireland since Pope John Paul in 1979.
Pressure is mounting on Pope Francis to address the controversy, which re-emerged this week with the US grand jury finding that at least some of the cover-ups went all the way to the Vatican. It is still not clear if the Pope will meet with Irish victims of abuse while here.
The renewed focus has led campaigners to point to Ireland’s own painful legacy and the low prosecution rate of offenders since the Ryan and Murphy Commission reports on clerical abuse were published in 2009.
AnneMarie Crean of Reclaiming Self, a voluntary group of survivors and advocates, said she has found it ‘impossible’ to get answers from Church or State on the current locations of any of those accused.
Her repeated attempts to use the Freedom of Information Act to glean some information for survivors have been continually thwarted. Ms Crean, who presented a 200page report on the follow-up to the Ryan Report to the UN Committee Against Torture, believes ‘there is an ongoing cover-up of child abuse, with priests being moved around Ireland and internationally’. ‘These are serial abusers, and we still don’t know where they are or if they have access to children. How many more inquiries do we have to have before the State protects children?’ asked Ms Crean. ‘They are hiding behind a cloak of legislation and data protection – but there should be no legal barriers when it comes to safeguarding children.
‘The Church has failed on an ongoing basis, and it has just taped over abuse. Why aren’t they opening their files?
‘All survivors have received have been empty promises and an empty apology. Most of the time, abuse has been denied, which is absolutely heart-breaking for survivors…who have been left retraumatised by the experience.’
Anne Marie Kennedy, manager of the Aislinn Centre, which works with survivors asked: ‘How many other Br Aidan Clohessys are out there?
‘The State has absolutely failed to safeguard children. The safeguarding policies that were introduced [by dioceses after the Ryan report] are merely paying lip-service to safeguarding children.’
The Catholic Association of Bishops refused to respond to numerous MoS queries on whether they are satisfied children are being protected, and whether the Church would be prepared to hand over all the relevant files to the State or An Garda Síochána, if asked to do so.
But the Catholic Church’s independent child protection watchdog has said it is ‘impossible’ to confirm whether any members of the clergy accused of sexual abuse in either the Ryan or Murphy reports continue to have access to children.
Teresa Devlin, chief of the National Board for Safeguarding Children, said that she was confident all allegations since the Ryan and Murphy Commissions had been
reported to the relevant responsible authorities such as An Garda Síochána and Tusla.
‘The legislation which helped establish the Ryan Commission did not allow for the information it collected to be used outside those processes,’ Ms Devlin explained.
‘The Murphy Report also received complaints against 172 named and 11 unnamed religious but only investigated a sample of 46 cases. There is no information available on the cases that were not investigated.’
Less than 10% of the hundreds of members of the clergy who stood accused of more than 1,700 allegations since the Ryan Report in 2009 have faced a prosecution. Ms Devlin said the prosecution rate remains ‘low’. The Safeguarding Board’s most recent report shows a rise in allegations over the period of April 2017 to March this year. Some 135 allegations were made against 98 members of the clergy, including diocesan clerics – and in three cases they remain in a ministry with children. Asked yesterday about these comments, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: ‘Look that’s absolutely something of concern, you know child protection is of paramount importance. ‘Whether a potential abuser is a priest or nor, or in any other walk of life, we don’t want children to be exposed to that. So of course that’s an issue.’
Asked if the Church should hand over any relevant files, Mr Varadkar said: ‘I think sexual abuse and child sexual abuse in particular is one of the most beastly crimes.
‘And in Ireland in recent years we’ve changed our laws, brought in mandatory reporting for the first time last year. We don’t have a statute of limitations when it comes to child sexual abuse for example and whether that is the law or not, that should be the practice.
‘What we need, I believe, is truth, justice and healing for the victims.
‘And, yes, that does involve making available any information that State authorities ask for.
‘I’m not sure if we can compel somebody to provide documents when they’re held in a different jurisdiction so I’m not able to answer that question. But, certainly, if there are documents that exist in Ireland, we can do that as I understand.’
Asked whether the Pope should apologise for child sex abuse in Ireland, Mr Varadkar said: ‘I’ll be having a brief meeting with Pope Francis on Saturday and we’ll be attending an event together in Dublin Castle. I’ve no doubt that he’s going to want to address the issue of child sex abuse, and he will want to say something about it or do something about it, and I think we should listen to what he wants to say. I do [think he should meet with survivors] but ultimately that is a decision for himself.’
‘Child sexual abuse is one of the most beastly crimes’