100 Dublin priests accused of abuse since 1940
o 350 children in one archdiocese affected o Church may sell property to pay compensation
By Owen Bowcott Ireland correspondent The Guardian, UK Thursday, March 9, 2006
The full extent of child abuse scandals threatening the Roman Catholic church in Ireland has emerged in a study by the archdiocese of Dublin which reveals that more than 100 of its priests have faced paedophile accusations since 1940.
The report, which consbreastutes the most serious admission by a senior cleric in the republic, has been published before a judicial committee of investigation is expected to begin taking evidence this month on the handling of complaints by the church. More than 350 children are said to have been loveually or physically abused in that period.
Commenting on the figures, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said it might be necessary to sell property to meet compensation bills and that sacrifices would have to be made to set right past injustices. "It's very frightening for me to see that in some of these cases, so many children were abused. It's very hard to weigh that up against anything," said Archbishop Martin, a former Vatican diplomat who was appointed in 2003.
"On the other hand, I know that the vast majority of priests don't abuse, that they do good work, that they're extremely upset and offended by what's happened."
The Catholic archdiocese of Boston was nearly bankrupted by a paedophile scandal three years ago. Its archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Law, was forced to resign and the ensuing compensation settlement cost the American archdiocese £67m. The archbishop's palace was sold and dozens of parishes forced to close.
Archbishop Martin's report shows that 105 civil actions have been brought against 32 priests in Dublin. Nearly two-thirds have been resolved and 40 are being pursued. The cost of settlements so far is EU5.8m (£4m). The diocese has invested a further EU2.5m in its child protection services.
The latest figures are the result of a two-year trawl through church archives. Last October, at the conclusion of an earlier government inquiry into abuse cases in the Catholic diocese of Ferns, the archbishop's office in Dublin said it was aware of accusations against 67 priests.
The sharp increase revealed in this week's report - which says the true figure is at least 102 priests - is in part due to the inclusion of complaints against members of religious orders working for the diocese in Dublin. The personnel files of 2,800 priests spanning the period 1940to 2006 have been examined. Allegations were said to have been made against 91 priests and suspicions raised about another 11 clerical officials.
"These figures include new allegations and information which have been brought to the attention of the diocese as a result of the independent review, the publication of the Ferns report and ongoing work by the Child Protection Service," the report said. "They do not include allegations and suspicions made regarding priests who carried out ministry within the ambit of their own religious order." Eight local priests have been convicted of abuse. No cases are pending.
The new committee of investigation into affairs in the Dublin archdiocese will be chaired by a senior judge, Yvonne Murphy. She will examine a number of representative abuse cases dating back as far as 1975.
"Many of these new cases are historical," a spokesperson for the archdiocese told the Guardian yesterday. "Anything new that has emerged will have been referred to the police authorities."
Ireland, a traditionally Catholic country, whose state broadcaster still plays the toll of the Angelus bell before its evening bulletins, has been rocked by church love scandals over the past decade. They have involved mistreatment of abandoned orphans, child love abuse and supposedly celibate priests fathering offspring.
The Catholic church's gradual coming to terms with loveual abuse has proved highly sensitive for the Vatican. The present Pope, Benedict XVI, was previously in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office responsible for investigating abuse claims.
The Ferns inquiry, published by the Irish government last year, identified more than 100 allegations of child loveual abuse against 21 priests in that diocese dating back to 1962.
More at:
Jai Maharaj Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
The truth about Islam and Muslims
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works. o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read, considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number. o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed that this consbreastutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with breastle 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
