It proved difficult to get an explanation from Irish Catholic Church authorities as to what Pope John Paul meant yesterday by saying the Church strove "to respond in truth and justice" to the problem of clerical paedophilia.
In his Letter to Priests for Holy Thursday 2002, the Pope spoke of such abuse as "the most grievous form of the mysterium iniquitatis [mystery of evil] at work in the world". It cast "a dark shadow of suspicion" over all the other fine priests, he said, and "the Church shows her concern for the victims and strives to respond in truth and justice to each of these painful situations".
A spokesman for Cardinal Desmond Connell referred the query to Mr Paul Bailey, director of the Irish Bishops' Conference Child Protection Office. So also did a spokesman for the Bishop of Ferns Dr Brendan Comiskey. Mr Bailey is based at the Catholic Communications Office in Maynooth
The Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazarotto, requested the query be put in writing, but did not respond.
Mr Bailey, who had been attending meetings throughout yesterday, said last night he believed the Pope meant that the Church should respond with "appropriate care" to victims of sex abuse by priests.
The victims' needs should be listened to and mechanisms should be put in place so that such abuse could not occur again. He also said there was a need for greater transparency on the Church's part in dealing with paedophilia.
The co-ordinator of Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA), Mr John Kelly, said yesterday he hoped the Pope's statement "is followed up by substance and is not yet another message clouded in smoke screens and mirrors".
Welcoming the statement, he noted its lack of detail "on prevention, direction or remedies" for addressing the problem of paedophilia within the Church. Neither did it explain how victims were to receive the justice of which the Pope spoke, he said.
Meanwhile, the Residential Institutions Redress Bill will reach its committee and final stage in the Seanad today.
Once more an opposition amendment proposes that victims, under the terms of the Bill, include those abused as children attending day schools who are currently excluded from the Bill's terms. It is believed the amendment has the support of some Fianna Fáil committee members.
• Yesterday Mr Donncha McGloin (29), who was raped by Father Seán Fortune 14 years ago, claimed the abuse would not have happened had complaints about the priest being brought to the gardaí instead of his being sent to London to do a media course.
It was on his return from London, when he was conducting a journalism course in Dublin, that Father Fortune raped Mr McGloin, one of his students, in a recording studio at Booterstown.
Mr McGloin, who now lives in Edinburgh, described as "grossly insulting" a statement by the Bishop of Ferns, Dr Brendan Comiskey, in response to Tuesday's BBC programme Suing the Pope.
Mr McGloin, who was interviewed on the programme, felt the bishop must have been instructed to phrase the statement's wording so as to avoid culpability for the activities of Father Fortune outside the Ferns diocese.
He also described as "stupid" and "ridiculous" Dr Comiskey's statement that, following the programme, he felt free to write to the four men interviewed about their abuse by Father Fortune. Previously he had felt that his doing so could have been misrepresented as an attempt to dissuade the men from taking legal action, the bishop said.
Mr McGloin felt that there was never anything to prevent Dr Comiskey from contacting any of the men at any time. It was normal for such contact between parties even after legal action had been initiated, he said.
