DAMIEN MORAN, CSSp,
Sir, - Is there a role for Irish seminarians, diocesan and religious, in helping to bring about greater accountability, transparency, and compassion within the Irish Church? As first-year students of the Holy Ghost/Spiritan Congregation we have been deeply saddened by all revelations of clerical child sexual abuse. The inadequate and often cold response by those in authority to the courageous victims' cries for justice is not just unfortunate, but totally unacceptable and gravely unchristian.
The criminal and civil law of this country must now take priority above Church law, and be strictly applied for the identification and prosecution of all perpetrators and conspirators of these evil crimes.
Currently disillusioned with unjust and protectionist institutional Church structures, we call on all Catholics, and especially fellow seminarians, to participate actively in the construction of a more inclusive and compassionate Church, modelled on the life and good example of Jesus Christ. - Yours, etc.,
DAMIEN MORAN, CSSp,
STEPHEN SHIELDS, CSSp,
House of Studies,
Kimmage Manor,
Dublin 12.
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Madam, - Cardinal Connell is undergoing an intense grilling by the media because he declined to advertise the misconduct of his paedophile priests by submitting them to the due process of the law and exposing them to the consequent publicity.
What else would you expect him to do?
The archbishop and his priests are a family. What pater familias would expose his son to such publicity should be discover him in flagrante delicto with another member of the family? His natural instinct would be to prevent the public from knowing anything about it.
Where the archbishop was at fault was in returning the paedophile to a position where he could still give free rein to his extracurricular propensities. Consequently I suggest that those members of the media presently engaged in vilifying the cardinal should carefully examine their own consciences, granted that they possess such a burdensome faculty! - Yours, etc.,
NORBERT REILLY,
Ramonan,
Ballyjamesduff,
Co Cavan.
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Madam, - Human depravity is such that there will always be people in positions of leadership who will betray their trust and abuse children. While this is not confined to the Church of Rome alone, the mindset of this Church gave greater liberty to paedophiles than any other church grouping.
First of all, the idea that canon law has precedence over the civil law hampers all investigations by the civil authorities. The Scripture which teaches us that we are to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29) relates only to those laws which would prohibit the free worship of God and the propagation of the gospel. They were never intended to shield criminals from the judicial system.
Secondly, the idea that the good of the community must override the good of the individual singly failed those who have been abused. When people did come forward with their complaints, they were silenced to protect the "greater good" - i.e., the Church. Individualism has been blamed upon the Protestant Reformation, yet it was vigorously embraced in the weekly trek to the confessional box. It will, of course, be embraced in the Day of Judgement when "Everyone shall give an account of himself to God" (Romans 14:12).
Lastly, the idea that the Church will withstand the gates of hell in Matthew 16:18 was claimed exclusively by Rome alone. It actually relates to the whole body of people whose faith is Bible based, whatever denomination they profess. No one denomination or church grouping is infallible. Paul warned the Church at Rome to be not "high-minded but fear. . .lest God also spare not thee" (Romans 11:21) Infallibility belongs to God alone. - Yours, etc.,
COLIN MAXWELL,
Briarscourt,
Shanakiel,
Cork.
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Madam, - Paedophilia has been a poison in sectors of our society for a very long time. The abuse is far from being confined to the clerical world. It takes place in family life to a far greater extent than has been revealed or dealt with.
Should there be a Prime Time programme on the family situation there would be national horror. But the paedophile in the family is protected by the fact that the disgrace of the situation could make it too difficult for the victim to report to gardaí or anyone else. Even mothers feel forced to turn a blind eye to a situation they know exists for their children. Many women have been victims of rape by uncontrolled partners.
If paedophiles are to be brought to justice a great deal needs to be done through education. In the past young men faced their adulthood with no more than farm-yard observations and shared dirty jokes to enable them to deal with raging hormones. Moral and sexual immaturity were not supposed to require education. Nor had the victims any idea as to how improper advances should be dealt with.
Educators must look with urgency at the sort of programmes they have in place to enable young people cope with their sexuality in a proper human way and enable them to deal with and report any approach that desecrates them. Then justice demands that the perpetrator, from whatever source, be made to answer with the full rigours of the law. - Yours, etc.,
ANGELA MACNAMARA,
Kilmacud Road,
Dublin 14.
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Madam, - Since the bishops refused to go to the police, the police must now go to the bishops. - Yours, etc.,
PETER DE ROSA,
Ashford,
Co Wicklow.
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Madam, - I wonder what the prolific Father David O'Hanlon would say about all of this. - Yours, etc.,
DESMOND DORIS,
Glencoe Park,
Antrim Road,
Belfast.