Madam - I heard the radio interview in which the Minister for Justice referred to the "appalling treatment of paedophilia and child sex abuse" in the book Canon Law: Letter and Spirit, published in 1995, and also mentioned in Mr McDowell's letter (Nov 8th).
What greatly surprised me as I listened was that the Minister clearly regards the opinion expressed in this commentary as the authoritative voice of the Catholic Church on the issue, and his letter appears to confirm this. He made no reference in the interview to the official guidelines issued with the authority of the Irish Bishops' Conference around the same time (Child Sexual Abuse: Framework for a Church Response, January 1996), which presented a radically different attitude.
As a member of the Bishops' Advisory Committee which drafted the Framework document I must declare an interest. Nevertheless, I cannot have been the only listener puzzled by the Minister's omission.
During the 18 months of widespread consultation involved in preparing the Framework document, the advisory committee met the Bishops' Conference at all their plenary meetings in that period for detailed discussions about he document's evolution. At each of these meetings the bishops endorsed the Framework document's essential thrust, which is that the safety and welfare of children should be "the first and paramount consideration" following an allegation of child sexual abuse by a priest or religious. All the recommendations in the document flowed from this primary consideration.
My clear recollection is that the dialogue between the advisory committee and the bishops was of immense value in teasing out the essential issues to be addressed. During this process the bishops (and the committee) were aware of the opinion on child sexual abuse that would be articulated in the canon law commentary to which Mr McDowell referred, yet they fully endorsed the Framework document and its approach to the issue. The Bishops' Conference unanimously approved it for publication at their autumn 1995 meeting. It is, therefore, to this document, and not the canon law commentary, that the bishops signed up on behalf of the Irish Catholic community.
It seems only fair to point out that the Framework document was the first comprehensive set of procedures for responding to child sexual abuse from any corporate body in Ireland. Its guidelines formed the basis on which other organisations framed their codes - the GAA, for example. When, sometime later, Lord Nolan was drafting guidelines for the Bishops' Conference of English and Wales he came to Dublin to consult the committee responsible.
Of course, the advisory committee fully recognised that the document was of its time and would need to be revised periodically in the light of the developing understanding of child sexual abuse and child protection issues. I understand this is now being done. - Yours, etc,
JIM CANTWELL, Myrtle Park, Dún Laoghaire.