An Irish Catholic Responds
 

Q1. To the abuse victims and their families.

In his letter the Pope writes “you have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry”. Has this apology been heard?


Yes I think it has. Even people who were critical of the letter admitted that he had apologised so that demand that the Pope apologise has been laid to rest fully.
 
Q2. To those clergy who abused children.

 
In his letter the Pope writes that priests who abused children must “stand before properly constituted tribunals”, to the best of your knowledge, what is the current situation regarding ongoing investigations of clergy accused of child abuse in Ireland?


Well, the vast majority of clergy who abused children in Ireland are dead or have been dealt with by the courts. There are two chapters of the Murphy report, which was released in November, still to be published - they were withheld because of two pending court cases. It is expected that one of them will be resolved soon. However, the storm will blow once again when those other chapters are published and one of them is expected to be pretty bad in its contents. The police are also looking at the possibility of pressing charges but there is no developments at the moment. However it is unlikely that any charges will be pressed because in many cases no laws were broken, or the amount of time that has passed makes it very difficult for any charges to be brought. But like I say many of the people who were involved in these cases are dead, or have left the priesthood or have been thrown out of the priesthood.