The God Squad

The Irish Times – Saturday, December 12, 2009

PATSY MCGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

SURVIVORS OF child abuse and their representatives reacted with little enthusiasm to Pope Benedict XVI’s statement.

Marie Collins, who was abused in 1960 by a priest when she was a patient at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, said: “I can’t say I was disappointed because I didn’t have any high hopes.”

Acknowledging the sincerity of the pope’s call for prayers for those abused and their families, and possible initiatives where reorganisation of the Irish Church was concerned, she pointed out the statement “doesn’t deal with the past. No one has taken responsibility for what went on in Dublin. There is no accountability.”

Andrew Madden, who was abused by Ivan Payne when he was an altar boy in Dublin’s Cabra parish, “wasn’t particularly disappointed” by the statement either, as he had “no expectation of anything meaningful”.

It was “self-serving nonsense”, he said and he for one, as a survivor, hadn’t asked for prayers. “And they say they listen to survivors?”

The statement was “an attempt to deflect attention away from accountability”.

Both he and Ms Collins said what was necessary now was for the five sitting bishops named in the Murphy report to resign.

“All bishops in place over the period investigated by the commission should step down,” said Ms Collins. “They are collectively responsible for what went on in the diocese. It all happened on their watch. They must take responsibility.

“Bishop Murray resigning on his own is not the answer. A cover-up was admitted in the bishops’ statement [from the Irish bishops’ conference] this week. Those in place over that period must go. Then maybe we can have a fresh start,” she said.

Andrew Madden dismissed the pope’s intention of writing a pastoral letter to the Irish people with a “big deal!” comment. He too felt the five serving bishops named in the Murphy report must resign. They had been “responsible for covering up for paedophiles,” he said, and should “go, go, go”.

One in Four chief executive Maeve Lewis said she was “deeply disappointed” at the pope’s statement. “His reaction is wholly inadequate, and is likely to cause further distress and frustration to the thousands of Irish people who are survivors of clerical sex abuse,” she said.

“We had hoped that the pope might apologise for the culture of secrecy and cover-up by Catholic Church authorities documented by the report and that he might accept responsibility for his role in the creation of that culture,” she said.

His response echoed “that of the Irish bishops in attempting to focus blame for the destruction of countless lives on individual sex-offending priests rather than accepting accountability for the role of the Catholic Church authorities in recklessly endangering children,” she said.

Yesterday in an interview, Bishop Ray Field was asked why he delayed in reporting a complaint of abuse. He said he didn’t report it sooner because he didn’t know there was child sex abuse involved until “I went to see the police myself about it and got the full information”. The word “priest” was used instead of “police” in yesterday’s report.