Madam, – The exposure, in the Ryan report and the Murphy report, has had a number of effects, not all of them detrimental. Society will be encouraged to be more openly critical of its institutions and, as a result, may oblige institutional officers to become more accountable to those over whom they hold power or influence. In turn, the citizens may feel more able to criticise directly those in responsibility if it is felt they are abusing their power and influence.
Also, the suffering inflicted over many years on so many of our abused citizens, and the residue of guilt, regret, remorse, anxiety, depression, may at last have been alleviated.
Nevertheless, the pathology has been so endemic that investigation should not stop with the Dublin diocese nor be confined by any quasi-geographical border or sectarian boundary. Alan Shatter, TD (Home News, December 4th) called on the Government to “engage directly in discussions with the Northern Ireland Executive, the Northern Ireland Secretary of state and the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown . . . to seek the creation of structures to address allegations of clerical and institutional abuse in Northern Ireland”.
By no stretch of imagination is it likely that the Roman Catholic Church clergy have been the only guilty offenders in these respects. Yet again, Kincora comes to mind.
Any further investigation should seek to unearth paedophilia, from the slightest degree to the most revoltingly violent. No school, church or other social institution or organisation should any longer be immune from suspicion until all those who have suffered this scourge have been given the opportunity to let go of its effects.
Without compromising the laws of the state regarding such hateful and destructive acts, admission may also have some redemptive effect on the perpetrators, similar to that obtained by the process of restorative justice. All schools throughout Britain and Ireland, especially those which still house or which have housed boarders, should now be thoroughly investigated to ensure that no stone is left unturned in the desire to have this vile practice eliminated. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Dr Garret FitzGerald (Opinion, December 5th) suggests that a passage in the Murphy report “may help to explain why a number of offenders, having been recognised by church authorities as paedophiles, and thus seen as not morally responsible for their actions, were sent to new parishes without any regard for the danger to children there – when they should have been reported to the Garda.”
The passage in question in the Murphy report states: “This is a major point of difference between the church and the State law. In the former, it appears that paedophilia may be an actual defence to a claim of child sexual abuse just as insanity would be in the law of the State.” There is in fact nothing in church law that would explain or validate the state of affairs outlined in Saturday’s article.
Church law presumes persons intended to do what they have done. If an accused person can produce some evidence that he or she did not so intend, then the prosecution case must overturn that evidence to succeed. The Murphy report gives horrific examples of serial abusers who carefully groomed their victims. It is hard to imagine them claiming that their acts of abuse were not “intended” on the grounds a medical condition falling short of actual insanity and called “paedophilia” rendered them subject to urges and impulses which were in effect beyond their control: a kind of automatism. If, however, they did so argue and this argument were supported by psychiatric reports, it would always be open to the tribunal to overturn the argument by pointing to the facts as described in the report – which indicate the contrary beyond reasonable doubt.
While subject to correction, I think this is exactly the position in the law of the land. The only difference I see is that the church process follows the inquisitional rather than the adversarial model in its procedures.
Mental condition is a factor in the sentencing that follows conviction in church law as also in the law of the land. A standard commentary on the church’s code indicates that ecclesiastical authority must keep in mind the harm done to the victims. – Yours, etc,
A chara, – I value being a member of the laity of that portion of the global Christian family which is most visible at Vatican City in Rome. I am one of many who now ask Archbishop Martin and Cardinal Brady to carry the request from Bishop Willie Walsh that Pope Benedict lift his ban on discussion of women representing the message of the Gospels, as priests.
I would ask that dialogue begin at Vatican City to create the structures to enable this progress. Archbishop Martin wisely observed that the Roman Catholic Church has changed over 20 centuries, and will always change. Irish Christians at Glendalough, Kells and Skellig Michael provided leadership to the wider European Christian tradition in a previous period of darkness. We have the great good fortune of being able to access the consolation, guidance and strength that is left to us in the Gospels. The Gospels work in every era, but now it is critical that the global Roman Catholic Church can also adapt and do justice to the Gospels in every era. – Is mise,
Madam, – To show remorse and to atone for sins committed, perhaps the Catholic Church could hand over all their schools and their lands to their local communities for a nominal price per school?
May I suggest one euro? – Yours, etc,