Diarmuid Martin: Churches dealing with clerical abuse has been ‘catastrophic’

Larger Text

Print

E-mail

11 Comments

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin

Tweet

One years after the publication of the Murphy report, into clerical sexual abuse, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin has called the Catholic Churches method of dealing with the situation “catastrophic”.

He said the church in Ireland has become self-centered and had let itself become “beyond what is legitimate.”

“I see more clearly that the catastrophic manner in which the abuse was dealt with was a symptom of a deeper malaise within the Irish church,” said Dr Martin.

“The church in Ireland had allowed itself to drift into a position where its role in society had grown beyond what is legitimate. It acted as a world apart. It became self-centered. It felt that it could be forgiving of abusers in a simplistic manner and rarely empathized with the hurt of children.”

These comments appeared on a statement, posted on the Dublin archdiocese website (dublindiocese.ie). The statement marked the anniversary of the publication of the Murphy report on November 26, 2009.

In his statement he said the church had “also deluded itself about the faith of Irish people. It failed to recognize what radical evangelization of its structures and of its people actually meant. It spoke of renewal but really did not change. It failed adequately to recognize that renewal demands conversion.”

In the future, he said, “we need to sustain our robust child safeguarding norms and practices. They will, however, only work in the context of a renewed church.”

He said that Church is “not just an elite of the perfect. Many people with little education have a deeper insight into the message of Jesus Christ than some learned theologians or bishops.”

Speaking about he publication of the Murphy report he said “I unequivocally repeat what I said on publication of the report: ‘the Archdiocese of Dublin failed to recognize the theft of childhood which survivors endured and the diocese failed in its responses to [survivors] when they had the courage to come forward, compounding the damage done to their innocence. For that no words of apology will ever be sufficient’.”

Dr Martin said “The diocese failed not just in its responses to victims and their families. It failed itself and it failed society by trying to keep the evidence within its own structures.

“I repeat again what I said one year ago: ‘The sexual abuse of a child is and always was a crime in civil law; it is and always was a crime in canon law; it is and always was grievously sinful. The investigation of crime within society is the competence of An Garda Síochána’.”

Print

E-mail

Tweet