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Papal Nuncio reveals Pope Benedict’s disgust at clerical abuse tragedy in Ireland

Published Monday, February 20, 2012, 7:44 AM
Updated Monday, February 20, 2012, 2:07 PM

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President Michael D Higgins, Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore and Archbishop Charles J. Brown at Thursday's ceremony
President Michael D Higgins, Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore and Archbishop Charles J. Brown at Thursday's ceremony
Photo by Google Images


The new Papal Nuncio to Ireland has revealed how Pope Benedict was ‘scandalized and dismayed’ by the clerical sex abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church.

Archbishop Charles John Brown confirmed that the Pope was appalled by the tragedy of clerical child abuse in Ireland and acknowledged that recent years had been ‘difficult’ for Irish Catholic believers, the nuncio said.

Speaking at a liturgical reception hosted for him at the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin, Archbishop Brown spoke of his remit from the Pope to help build a new church in Ireland.

“He felt deeply the wounds of those who had been harmed and who so often had not been listened to,” said the Papal Nuncio.

“The Pope is resolute and determined to put into place changes that will give the church the ability to deal more effectively with those who abused trust, as well as provide the necessary assistance to those who had been victimized.

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“Pope Benedict has been relentless and consistent on this front, and I assure you that he will continue to be.”

Having worked at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 1994, the Manhattan native told the Irish Times that he represents various realities.

“I am the descendent of men and women of Ireland, who emigrated from this island, possessing little more than the treasure of their Catholic faith, which they, through the generations, have passed on to me,” he said.

“Were it not for the faith of Ireland, I would not be a Catholic today.”

Archbishop Brown also recalled he had worked with the then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, in the Roman Curia, the central administration of the Catholic Church.

He said: “I was a newly ordained bishop of the Catholic Church and, as such, with all my limitations and defects, a successor of the Apostles.

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22 Comments

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eiriamach | Mar 25, 2012, 04:14 PM EDT
Collie"girl" writes, "here in the US it is the policy that all accusations are immediately passed on the the police, even without evidence, and the priest concerned is immediately withdrawn from service until or unless cleared of all charges." If only the Church followed that policy, but it does not! In March 2011, Cardinal Justin Rigali said Philadelphia no longer had priests “who have an admitted or established allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against them.” Three months later, the American bishops refused to tighten their oversight policy as critics have urged, even though Cardinal Rigali had placed three more priests on suspension and then resigned days after the last grand jury report. In the Kansas City diocese, the Opus Dei bishop Robert Finn was indicted for withholding info about criminal child pronography by Fr. Ratigan. Four months ago he worked out an "arrangement" by which he does what the law requires all citizens to do, report to the police any evidence of abuse. But the bishop does so only under threat of trial and prison sentence for his role in covering up for the prono priest. The American bishops are not model defenders of children, not with their subpoenas against SNAP--this month--and the expensive lobbyists they've hired to fight extension of state statutes of limitations on sexual abuse cases. The NY Times has a good history piece on RC sexual abuse in Ireland, elsewhere in Europe, and in the US: "Roman Catholic Church Sex Abuse Cases," March 12, 2012.

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Portia777 | Feb 22, 2012, 02:12 PM EST
exbreese The roman catholic cult has nothing to do with Jesus and his disciples. If people research they will find the truth

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Portia777 | Feb 22, 2012, 02:10 PM EST
stanJames |also google Vatican crimes and banished babies and what do we find. a world wide child trafficking ring. Who would want to say they are part of such a criminal gang? also worth a google evil org vatican and see how molestation was considered a sacred rite/right of the men of god. That is canon law for you.

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Colliegirl | Feb 22, 2012, 10:23 AM EST
eiriamach writes "The pope gave permission for bishops to cooperate with civil authorities where the law already requires them to do so, but bishops still do not initiate contact with law enforcement when they have evidence, and they do not cooperate with it." I don't know about Ireland but here in the US it is the policy that all accusations are immediately passed on the the police, even without evidence, and the priest concerned is immediately withdrawn from service until or unless cleared of all charges. So the innocent priests suffer because of what some did in the past but this no tolerance policy is necessary to protect our children. This website has turned into a Catholic bashing orgy.

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IrelandNorth | Feb 22, 2012, 08:03 AM EST
The real struggle isn't between the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church and Protestantism since Luther's Reformation in 1588. Nor between eastern and western Orthodoxies since the middle ages (c. 1,000 A.D. (?)) It's between Orthodox and Heterodox Christianities since c. 300/400 A.D. (?) Read the Gnostic Gospels, the gospels the the institutional church didn't want you to read.

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eiriamach | Feb 21, 2012, 07:05 PM EST
Dr McHugh writes, "The actions of Pope Benedict XVI and others have shown the world that they cannot be trusted to police themselves." The canon law that Benedict VI put in place to deal with the "problem" may help the church remove predator priests less slowly, but it gives NO help to police investigations. The pope gave permission for bishops to cooperate with civil authorities where the law already requires them to do so, but bishops still do not initiate contact with law enforcement when they have evidence, and they do not cooperate with it. And since "the Church is not a democracy," the laity still have no authority to monitor parishes or schools for evidence of sexual abuse by priests or nuns. They will not police themselves, and they strongly resist being policed by anyone else. To me, this situation amounts to "no change." Toronthab suggests that continuing the media focus on abuse might result in "abetting the great problems of abuse." No, the media focus, along with the diligence of organizations like SNAP, is the only hope of discouraging abusers! The Church's own medieval approach to human sexuality, which drives priests to dangerous levels of sexual repression, is no counter-force; on the contrary, it ensures that the problem will continue within the Church. Let's hope that the media continue to investigate!

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CitizenWhy | Feb 21, 2012, 11:00 AM EST
Here we go again with the tainted John Jay report. It took 20 years to learn that the "treatment" did not work? Nothing was learned for m observation, from watching the same priests harm children over and over again? And of the course the report does not mention that the director of the first center where priests were sent to be cured - a priest himself - reported that these pedophiles could not be cured. He was fired and replaced by a lay man full of unproven theories, with no empirical data to back up his claims that he could cure. When I was child my Catholic pastor, faced with a child molestatiuon issue, researched the situation and found the reports stating that no cure was possible. He too appropriate actiuon. That was 70 years ago.

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CitizenWhy | Feb 21, 2012, 10:55 AM EST
The Pope's Optah moment - feeling one's pain, and thereby taking no responsibility for helping to cause it. Bah!

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Toronthab | Feb 21, 2012, 09:32 AM EST
While it helps to while away the hours hating and detesting the Catholic Church, its clear at least as far as the John Jay College of Criminal Justice report is concerned that a great deal of effort and expense was undertaken to treat and cure abusers. It was only 20 years later that scientific opinion declared the treatments significantly ineffective. 60% of it worked however. The same report said that there was nothing particularly unique about the church with these effects of the corruption of the western world in 1960. By focusing exclusively on the folks you love to hate, are you abetting the great problems of abuse in the public system. Are you on them in the same way? Just sayin'.

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IronMountainMovies | Feb 21, 2012, 09:13 AM EST
The Pope and his hierarchy claim to be descended from the apostles. If this is true then the lineage goes right back to Judas!

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stanJames | Feb 20, 2012, 11:21 PM EST
thanks to Portia near the bottom of this blog, and her comment about the church and indigenous indians in South America....................Just Google " Pope Benedict Argues Catholic Church 'Purified' Indigenous Peoples" and see the vile insult the Pope laid upon the majority of people in South America who are basically of Indian heritage............The guy is so brainwashed by his own propaganda its unbellievable...............The best thing the Irish Govt can do is send this "Ambassador" home persona non grata, and then BREAK RELATIONS WITH ROME. It will be the end of Benedicts horrendous papacy, and maybe an opportunity for the good catholic people to run the church, rather then the hierarcy to run and control the people.

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stanJames | Feb 20, 2012, 09:36 PM EST
The church still trying to obfuscate and deny what happened. The scandal broke in 2002 in the Boston Globe and the Pope took office in 2005 if I remember correctly.................. the real issue is about money and how the church hid these vile crimes for God only knows how long...............Now it has to face the facts - in the USA about 5000 priests etc have been creditably accused and SNAP estimates that another 5000 priests are still not even beginning to be brought to justice............The bottom line is that the church is all but dead in Europe, dying in Latin america and I think it was IC (maybe NCRonline) that pointed out in Ireland only 25% fo the people go to church, down in about 10 years from 90 %................and of course this iws the same pope who in 2009 UNexcommunicated bishop Williamson, a holocaust denier................ I guess most people know where I stand......................Benedicts appointment is perhaps Gods way of creating a second Inquisition, where the hierarchy will have to own up to its endless crimes..........Try this one - google "church stole babies in Spain (also Australia.)

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exbreese | Feb 20, 2012, 04:43 PM EST
One can claim to be anything. But, Claims of divine appointment mean nothing if those who make them are not obedient to God and Christ Matt. 7:21-23, JB: “It is not those who say to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. When the day comes many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?’ Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; away from me, you evil men!”

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exbreese | Feb 20, 2012, 04:41 PM EST
This claim of being a successor of St. Peter is interesting. Actually,Has an unbroken line of successors been traced from Peter to modern-day popes? Jesuit John McKenzie, when professor of theology at Notre Dame, wrote: “Historical evidence does not exist for the entire chain of succession of church authority.”—The Roman Catholic Church (New York, 1969), p. 4. The New Catholic Encyclopedia admits: “ . . . the scarcity of documents leaves much that is obscure about the early development of the episcopate . . . ”—(1967), Vol. I, p. 696.

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hybernia | Feb 20, 2012, 02:16 PM EST
What you DO speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say

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