Madam, – In preparation for their imminent meeting with Pope Benedict XVI about the Murphy report, the Irish bishops have met with and consulted only with some of those whose stories are contained in the Ryan report.
Why, it must be urgently inquired, are they ignoring the thousands of survivors affected by the actions of diocesan priests within these bishops’ own dioceses? Their non-responsiveness towards this other half of the survivor community is shocking.
To fail to meet and listen to, a similarly representative group of survivors of abuse by diocesan clergy is an appalling oversight by a body of men whose credibility is in tatters, even among faithful and committed Catholics.
It can only be interpreted as either very careless or extremely callous. Quite possibly, it is an attempt by bishops to give the impression of having “consulted” with victims before they meet the Holy Father while, in reality, they are merely using some hand-picked victims’ groups for their own cynical purposes.
Those who stories are represented by the Ryan report certainly need to be heard continuously and there is need for ongoing dialogue facilitated between these survivors and the church, towards restitution for the unimaginable suffering inflicted upon them, in institutions.
Why do the bishops choose to ignore the huge number of those survivors whose experiences are more reflected in the Murphy report? This is truly unbelievable. The forthcoming meeting with the Pope is about the Murphy report not the Ryan report.
This disregard of survivors of abuse by diocesan clergy, whose sufferings were multiplied by the disgraceful behaviour of many bishops, is profoundly hurtful to thousands of such survivors and their loved ones. When, in God’s name, will these men ever learn? Their latest PR stunt staged on February 8th at Maynooth underlines, yet again, the snide contempt, lack of charity and humility and absence of basic Christianity, lurking behind their meaningless apologies to – and pretended sympathies for – the victims of clerics for whom they as diocesan bishops – and not the religious orders – were responsible.
The Irish Episcopal Conference gives every evidence of playing further cynical, crass and heartless games with already broken and suffering survivors. The hypocritical, crafty and self-serving omission by these men to reach out to all survivors of abuse, bodes no good for any positive outcome that may have come from their meeting with Pope Benedict and his intervention.
It highlights further their lack of any sincerity on this issue, their unwillingness and utter inability to effect healing for survivors, or show genuine repentance for, among other things, the appalling leadership of the bishops of Ireland. – Yours, etc,