Church in conflict over new policy on sex abuse

A Major row has broken out between the Catholic Church and its own advisory committee over who should decide what happens when clerics are accused of child abuse.

The Irish Independent understands that the row centres on whether it should be experts in child protection or the religious superiors and bishops who decide whether an allegation is serious enough to pass on to state authorities, including the gardai.

Historically, the Church has been extremely reluctant to cede any control over what happens to its priests and religious.

A comprehensive new child protection policy was presented to the bishops and religious orders over the summer.

The draft policy now sits with a steering committee consisting of three bishops, three members of CORI (the Conference of Religious of Ireland), and one member of the Irish Missionary Union.

The committee must find a way out of the current impasse or the Church could find its attempt to undo the damage caused to its reputation by the child abuse scandals badly derailed.

A spokesperson for the bishops last night would only acknowledge that "some issues have been referred to the steering committee." He would not confirm what those issues were.

It is understood that the bishops are divided over the policy, with some supportive of it in its current form.

If implemented, the new policy would radically update and improve the child protection policy the Church has been using since 1996 called 'Child Sexual Abuse: Framework for a Church Response.'

The framework is entirely voluntary and there is no system in place to ensure it has been implemented throughout the country's 180 religious orders and dioceses in a standardised and uniform way.

Although it requires that allegations of child abuse be brought to the attention of the relevant state authorities, in practice the bishop or religious superior gets to decide whether an allegation warrants such action.

He also decides whether or not a priest should stay in ministry while a garda investigation is being conducted, and what should happen if the investigation has proven inconclusive but a suspicion remains that the priest is guilty.

The draft policy recommends that regional child protection offices be set up throughout the country which bishops and religious superiors would have to turn to for advice whenever a priest was accused of child abuse.

David Quinn
Religious Affairs Correspondent

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