A prominent Irish-American priest has described as "disastrous" the handling of the child sex abuse crisis by Catholic Church authorities in Ireland. Meanwhile, an editorial in the current issue of Reality, the Redemptorist publication, said it was time the church "showed true repentance, not just in words but in actions" for the abuses.
Writing in the current issue of the Dominican publication, Doctrine & Life, Father Andrew Greeley, professor of sociology at the University of Arizona and the University of Chicago, says that on a visit to Dublin some years ago he was asked by a bishop to discuss the child sex abuse crisis in the US. The bishop said he "was certain it would soon erupt in Ireland", and sought advice.
Father Greeley said the church authorities should set up a commission before the crisis exploded and remove priests "who seem to be offenders". He advised: "never stonewall or cover up . . . acknowledge the problem, apologise profusely to victims and their families, and set up an impartial panel with a lay majority to determine reassignment (of offenders)".
Finally, he advised the church authorities not to excuse past failures. Today, he writes, he would add "don't let lawyers make your decisions for you". He left the meeting hopeful the Irish church would handle such a crisis better than the American church had. "Patently I was wrong," he concludes. "The results of the failure of leadership in Ireland are disastrous: the loss of credibility of church leaders, the destruction of the image of Irish clergy, and a savage decline in vocations."
Writing in Reality, the magazine's editor, Father Gerard Moloney, says "there remains a strong sense among many people that the church is still refusing to face up to the darker side of its history". There were those who remained in denial as to the extent of the abuses and who refused to believe the picture unfolding before their eyes.
It was now time "the entire Irish church faced up to the consequences of past abuses once and for all, and showed true repentance, not just in words but in actions," he says.
The church should state clearly that where allegations are proven it would recognise no statute of limitations. Where facts are established it must offer victims appropriate financial compensation "and with minimal involvement of barristers and solicitors".
If the church "does not finally and fully confront the darkness that overshadows its past and present, it cannot hope to face the new century with any degree of confidence," he says.
