Church 'faces meltdown' in wake of child sex abuse by clerics

The institutional Catholic Church is "facing meltdown" unless the issue of child sexual abuse by clerics is properly dealt with, a spokesman for Ireland's priests has said.

Father Colm Kilcoyne told RTÉ that he believed it was time for the Church to stop "talking in circles" and open up its files to a State inquiry.

"We need to be open, be honest, give ourselves a year or whatever to clear the slate. We know there's a problem. We know there's a problem that has been badly handled. So let's deal with it for God's sake for once and for all, and get on with the real business of the church," he said.

Speaking on Radio One's Morning Ireland yesterday, Father Kilcoyne, press officer for the National Conference of Priests of Ireland, also said that, if Cardinal Connell was being criticised unfairly, he had "brought a lot of it down on his own head".

He could solve his difficulties by agreeing to an official inquiry. "We are citizens of Ireland and the law of the land is superior to Canon law."

Father Kilcoyne said that the issue of child abuse had done "tremendous harm" to the institutional structures of the church. "In fact, unless something is done - without being too dramatic about it - we're facing meltdown for the institutional church."

He added that there was "a bit of me that couldn't care what happened to the institutional church", and that, in his own Mayo parish, lay people had shown themselves well equipped to differentiate between the "messiness at institutional level and the personal faith of the individual".

Also interviewed on the programme, however, a former professor of canon law at St Patrick's College Thurles, said it was "nonsense" to suggest that the Church should hand over all its files.

Monsignor Maurice Dooley agreed that those in charge of files should give all the assistance they could to any inquiry but only within the limits of confidentiality that may have been imposed upon them. They should also "filter" documents and hand over only what was relevant.

"This idea of total openness - give the guards everything - is nonsense, legally as well as in practice," he said.

Meanwhile, another victim of sex abuse by a priest in Dublin told the Liveline programme that he received about €55,000 in a settlement in 1998.

Identified as "Gary", the caller said that in 1995 he made a complaint about Father James McNamee, a parish priest in Crumlin, Dublin until 1979. A Garda file was sent to the DPP, who decided not to prosecute on the grounds of lapse of time, inadequate evidence and the priest's advanced age.

In taking a legal case, the caller said, he had sought only an apology. After meetings between lawyers for both sides, he was told the priest would "never" apologise.

Instead, a sum of compensation was offered and he accepted this. He did not know who paid the compensation. Father McNamee, who was moved in 1979 to Delgany, Co Wicklow, where he served as chaplain at the Carmelite convent, died recently.