The co-ordinator of SOCA, the Irish Survivors of Child Abuse group, has described as "a cynical ploy" the announcement on Monday by the Dublin archdiocese that it would "co-operate fully" with gardaí investigating allegations of clerical child sex abuse.
Mr John Kelly said the move was intended "to disarm the Minister for Justice as he prepares legislation to compel them to do so".
Mr Kelly also dismissed as "sanctimonious claptrap" plans by the archdiocese to set up a child protection service, pointing out that church authorities had "a duty and a moral obligation" to protect children but that, as in the Father Noel Reynolds case in Dublin, they had failed to do so.
What was at issue was abuse, he said, and what SOCA and other victims' groups wanted to know was "the full extent of the abuse. Child protection is another matter. We want an inquiry which will reveal the full extent of the cover-up of child sexual abuse in the church and not to be fobbed off with future plans for child protection. Child protection is not justice. It is a completely separate issue. The issue is abuse."
While he was pleased at "the personal satisfaction" realised by abuse victims Ms Marie Collins and Mr Ken Reilly at their meeting on Monday with Cardinal Desmond Connell and Bishop Eamonn Walsh, he felt it was part of a divide-and-conquer strategy being employed by the church. SOCA, he said, was not about personal satisfaction; it was about justice.
He compared Monday's meeting with one he had with the cardinal and bishop following a SOCA protest at the RDS in Dublin last June, where the Irish Christian Brothers were celebrating their bicentennial which was attended by Cardinal Connell.
By Mr Kelly's account the meeting lasted 1½ hours and "got heated", with no press conference afterwards. He had been "admonished" and "scolded" and was met with a "much more adversarial attitude" than he had ever been, he said. This, he felt, was more consistent with the church's line on the issue.
This was also illustrated at the Laffoy commission where, despite promises of co-operation, there had been two legal actions by the religious orders in 2002, and Mr Justice Laffoy had remarked that the orders were co-operating only so far as legally obliged, he said.
SOCA, while suspicious that diocesan files and those held by the religious orders may well be "doctored", intended advising members to seek all relevant personal files from the church authorities, he said.
He repeated SOCA's call for Cardinal Connell's resignation, despite Monday's events. Resignation however should not mean that the cardinal escaped "accountability or justice for his involvement in the crimes against children or to simply repeat his meaningless forgiveness to victims aligned to his legal apologies", he said.
He noted that 2002 had been described as an annus horribilis for the Catholic Church in Ireland. Unless there was full disclosure of all past abuses, he said, the church would be "getting more of the same in 2003. We won't be going away."
