A protest march calling for the resignation of Cardinal Desmond Connell as Archbishop of Dublin is being planned for Sunday, January 5th, by victims of clerical child sex abuse in the archdiocese.
Mr Ken Reilly, who was abused by Father Tony Walsh, and Ms Marie Collins, who was abused by Father Paul McGennis, have called for "a silent, dignified protest" from the Pro-Cathedral on Marlborough Street to Arch- bishop's House in Drumcondra, assembling outside the Pro-Cathedral at 1.30 p.m. A letter calling for the resignation will be handed in at Drumcondra.
The victims have also called on the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, "as Catholics and Dublin TDs" to take part, as well as priests, laity, and other abuse victims.
Mr Reilly, who participated in the RTÉ Prime Time Cardinal Secrets programme last October, said he had been inspired to call for such a march after reading a report in The Irish Times on December 18th. It said that Ms Collins's account of a meeting with Cardinal Connell on December 30th, 1996, had been corroborated by the only other party present, Father James Norman.
"Up to then I was in agreement with those who said his (the cardinal's) resignation was not the issue and that the problem of clerical child sex abuse was more a matter of institutional failure in the church than of any individual," he said. "Now we have enough. How much more of this do we need? How much more did they need in Boston?" he asked.
Father Norman confirmed that the cardinal had said at the 1996 meeting that the church's guidelines on clerical child sex abuse were "only guidelines" and didn't have to be followed. He also agreed that Cardinal Connell had pointed out then that the guidelines, published in January 1996, were not binding in canon law.
Last April the cardinal said that what he told Ms Collins at that meeting was that the bishops' 1996 guidelines superseded both canon and civil law.
Father Norman also confirmed Ms Collins's claim that the cardinal had told her she was trying to ruin Father McGennis's good name over something that had happened 30 or 40 years before.
All three at the meeting were aware that Father McGennis had already confessed to the abuse of Ms Collins in interviews earlier that year.
