Madam, – Bishop Christopher Jones feels the Catholic Church has been unfairly treated by the media (Front page March 11th).
He’s absolutely right that the covering up of child abuse has gone on for centuries and continues to go on today in families and communities. That’s how child abuse operates; it relies on secrecy, and to tackle it requires exposing it – I would have hoped the church would at least get that by now!
But what he also fails either to understand or acknowledge is that the church is neither a family nor a community – no matter how much it might like to term itself that way. It is an organisation that provides services to the public – as crude a description as that might be to some. It develops relationships with, and supports children and families.
Its ability to deliver those services is dependent on the trust that is placed in it by the community. As such an organisation, we have an expectation that it will have systems in place to protect those in its care. It has failed, and failed spectacularly, with horrendous results. Bishop Jones will excuse me if I don’t feel sorry for him and his church. – Yours, etc,