Bishops admit: We hid abuse to avoid scandal

'We apologise once again to the victims and their loved ones for the hurt caused, the damage done and the failures on our part.' - Archbishop Sean Brady

Irish Independent
Friday December 5th 2003

IRELAND'S Catholic bishops have candidly admitted for the first time their response to abuse victims in the past was motivated primarily by a desire to avoid scandal.

The Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Sean Brady of Armagh, delivered a heartfelt apology to abuse victims for the hurt caused and damage done.

He was speaking at the launch of a groundbreaking study of clerical sex abuse, for which bishops, priests, victims and abusers were interviewed along with 1,000 members of the public.

The report, called 'Time to Listen', states: "The clergy and Church personnel interviewed described how the goals of preventing scandal and protecting the laity guided many decisions made in managing allegations of child sexual abuse."

Thirty-five bishops participated in the study conducted by the Royal College of Surgeons on behalf of the hierarchy. One stated frankly: "The whole instinct on our part is that we must protect the Church, so let's try and deal with this quietly . . . scandal was always regarded as one of the really serious sins."

Another said: "I suppose scandal theologically would be seen as possibly leading other people into sin. If my brother does something [bad] I'm not going to go and shout it from the roof tops."

A third bishop stated: "I wished to avoid the great scandal of a priest being arresting for molesting a child . . . which again was wrong . . . at the time one was protecting not so much the Church but the priest and the priesthood and the people."

Speaking at the launch of the report Archbishop Brady delivered a heartfelt apology to abuse victims. He said: "Today gives me the opportunity to express once again, on behalf of all the bishops, our deepest sorrow that some of our priests were responsible for the pain of child sexual abuse in society." In dealing with abuse victims, the Church had acted "in good faith", according to Bishop John McAreavey of Dromore, who was also speaking at the launch.

The Church had followed "the best psychiatric advice available at the time", he said. However, he acknowledged that "clearly in relation to clerical sexual abuse, we failed many young people for too long a period".

The survey of public attitudes to the subject found over three quarters of people believe the Church has not responded adequately to the issue.

Other finding of the survey were:

* Forty per cent of the public believe the Church cannot be entrusted with safeguarding children.

* Fifty-one per cent do not believe it can be trusted to take care of problems within its own clergy.

* More than 80pc felt they had not been kept properly informed about the problem by the Church.

However, the study also showed a high degree of trust in the clergy remained - as distinct from the Church itself. More than half reported satisfaction with the clergy, two-thirds said they looked to priests for moral guidance, 56pc said they would be happy with their son becoming a priest, and 65pc said they would be happy if their child became an altar boy or girl.

Prominent victim spokesman, Colm O'Gorman, welcomed aspects of the report, but said there were "glaring omissions" from it. He said the bishops should not put "a spin" on its findings, and noted it failed to address the "legalistic approach" pursued by the Church.

The study also provides for the first time an insight into the thinking of clerical sex offenders. They report how therapy revealed to them for the first time how badly hurt their victims were by what they did.

It interviews 21 victims of clerical sex abuse who almost uniformly complain about the manner in which they were treated by the Church authorities.

The bishops who responded to the survey discuss their reliance on psychiatrists for advice and how this had led them into trouble. One said: "The local psychiatrist advised . . . that this man [abuser] now realised the wrongness of what he was doing and that he felt confident that he would never do it again. That was in the early '80s."

The report notes that "some bishops were advised that priests who had sexually abused children were unlikely to present further risk. There was little professional expertise available at that time in Ireland."

Archbishop Brady described the purpose of the study as an effort "to assess the impact of child abuse by clergy, its management by the Church, and to discover what lessons could be learned for the future".

Archbishop Brady said the report documents "the pivotal role" the media played in disclosing child sexual abuse.

He added however: "The lack of public awareness as outlined in the report of the positive measures which the Church has taken in tackling the issue of child sexual abuse is disappointing, and something that requires careful examination."

"The limits of what have often been perceived as an unduly legalistic response, attempts at 'avoiding scandal', and protecting the institutional Church, are already well documented. The mistakes of the past must be acknowledged, and must not be repeated."

Bishop John McAreavey said that bishops had failed many young people over too long a period, "notwithstanding the report's acknowledgment that when dealing with abusers in the past, bishops followed - in good faith - the best psychiatric advice available at the time".

David Quinn
Religious Affairs Correspondent