The Apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Cloyne, Archbishop Dermot Clifford of
Cashel and Emly, has welcomed the findings of the government commissioned report into
the diocese of Cloyne and has “humbly apologised” on his own behalf and on behalf
of its clergy, “to all who suffered and their families.” This is the fourth report
into abuse in the Catholic Church in Ireland, after the report in the Ferns diocese
in 2005, the Ryan Report into abuse in residential institutions in 2009 and the Dublin
report in 2009.
The Commission of Investigation into the Catholic diocese
of Cloyne published its report Wednesday. Headed by Judge Yvonne Murphy. The report
- which covers the Diocese of Cloyne once headed by Bishop John Magee - was ordered
after a probe by the Church's own child safeguarding watchdog (the National Board
for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church) found that policies in the diocese
were inadequate.
The Cloyne Report contains 26 chapters, is about 400 pages
long, and includes findings on all 19 priests – diocesan and religious - who faced
abuse allegations there over the 13-year period investigated. In short, it looks at
the handling of abuse between January 1, 1996, when the Church in Ireland first introduced
child protection guidelines, and February 1, 2009.
The commissioners were not
tasked with establishing whether child sexual abuse took place or whether there was
a basis for suspicions or concerns. Instead, they investigated how the Church authorities
in the diocese dealt with allegations.Listen :
The
report states “the response of the Diocese of Cloyne to complaints and allegations
of clerical child sexual abuse in the period 1996 to 2008 was inadequate and inappropriate”.
It faults the then Bishop of the diocese, Bishop John Magee, for having failed to
oversee the implementation of the Churches’ own guidelines on the handling and reporting
of allegations. It states he took "little or no active interest" in the how allegations
of clerical sexual abuse cases were dealt with and “failed to supervise subordinates”.
The report concludes that the failure to report cases of allegations to civil
authorities was the greatest failure. The diocese failed to alert police in about
9 out of 15 cases that “very clearly” should have been reported
Cardinal Sean
Brady, primate of Ireland, said it was another "dark day in the history of the response
of church leaders to the cry of children abused by church personnel".
Archbishop
Dermot Clifford concluded “It appals me that, up to 2008, 13 years after these procedures
were put in place, they were still not being implemented in the Diocese of Cloyne.
This means that the Church authorities in Cloyne failed some of those who were abused
by not adhering to their commitments when dealing with complaints”.