Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin said concerns about “coherence and consistency" in the intepretation of church guidelines on child protection must be addressed urgently.
Dr Martin also expressed concern that the precise number of allegations of child abuse in each diocese has not been established with certainty in a report published today.
The independent body responsible for monitoring the protection of children within the structures of the church today published revised and updated guidelines on child protection following the recent controversy over child-protection practices in the Cloyne diocese.
The National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) guidelines said the Catholic Church has a responsibility to pass on a concern about child protection to the civil authorities even when the matter does not concern Church personnel directly.
The guidelines, entitled Safeguarding Children, provide detailed information for those who work or come into contact with children in the course of their work. They outline how to carry out a 'self-audit' in order to ensure maximum protection for the children in their care.
The standards laid out in the guideline document should be used by all Church organisations, including diocese, parishes, religious, institutions, seminaries and by church personnel such as clergy, religious, lay employees and volunteers.
In a statement, Dr Martin said the documents “constitute a significant step in an ongoing process of commitment by the Catholic Church in Ireland to ensure that the best possible child safeguarding processes are in place and are being monitored”.
Dr Martin said this was "a hopeful sign for the future" and he expressed his appreciation for the work achieved by the board and by Mr Elliott.
He said, however, his own concerns about a different intepretation of child protection norms by the various church bodies, as outlined last December, “seem to remain and would appear to be confirmed by the report” of the NBSCCC today.
He noted today's report stated that “it became clear that there is still variation in interpretation”.
”The new standards and guidance document is thus an important step towards establishing greater unity and coherence in practice.
“It is imperative that any doubts about the coherence and consistency of approach in implementing guidelines are addressed as a matter of urgency. This is of grave concern for the Archdiocese of Dublin where hundreds of priests from outside the diocese – from other dioceses and religious congregations - play an active role in many aspects of Church life.”
Dr Martin said he remained “anxious that the planned review of practice in various dioceses by the NSBCCC should contain specific protocols for the Archdiocese of Dublin to verify that the superiors of priests other than those of the Archdiocese of Dublin working in Dublin subscribe to and sustain the same norms and guidelines as those of the Archdiocese”.
The Archbishop added he was concerned it had not been possible to establish £with verifiable statistics from dioceses and congregations the precise number of allegations of abuse made during the period being examined”.
“The statistics reported-on refer only to the 26 dioceses and no detailed information has been reported-on concerning religious congregations. The National Board further considers that, as regards the 26 dioceses, ‘it would be inappropriate and unhelpful to accept the returns [of the dioceses] as a true reflection of safeguarding practice’. “Therefore much remains to be done,” Dr Martin said.
He said, however, he was “puzzled” by the assertion in the report that some dioceses were being more rigorous than required by civil guidelines or church standards.
But he said the two reports published today constituted a “genuine step forward” towards a system of monitoring and gathering of reliable statistics on all dioceses and congregations.
The guidelines were also welcomed by the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Seán Brady, as an “indication of the Church's resolve to safeguard children at all times”.
Minister for Children Barry Andrews said the work of the NBSCCC had "considerably strengthened the capacity of the Catholic Church in Ireland to address issues surrounding the threat of clerical sexual abuse".
He also noted the NBSCCC had "drawn attention to the varied approaches taken to the issue of child abuse
across dioceses in the past" and that different standards and approaches were taken that gave rise to "obvious difficulties".
"I am confident that through the work of the HSE, the statutory body responsible for child protection matters, and the NBSCCC working within the Catholic Church, a new level of confidence can be reached in implementing robust child protection procedures and the reporting of child abuse allegations within the Catholic Church," Mr Andrews said.
Catholic bishops held an emergency meeting last month at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, to discuss child protection amid a crisis after the report on child protection practices in the Cloyne diocese.
The meeting followed publication on December 19th last of a report on child protection practices in the Cloyne diocese by the NSBCCC in the Catholic Church in Ireland.
It found such practices in Cloyne to be “inadequate and in some respects dangerous”. It also found Bishop Magee had a written policy of supplying “minimal” information to the civil authorities on clerical child sex abuse allegations and that, in two instances, he did not report allegations immediately, as required by church and State guidelines.
The guidelines are available on the website www.safeguarding.ie