Sexual abuse in Cloyne diocese

The sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cloyne was investigated by the Commission of Investigation, Dublin Archdiocese, Catholic Diocese of Cloyne, examining how allegations of sexual abuse of children in the diocese were dealt with by the church and state. The investigation was led by Judge Yvonne Murphy, The Cloyne Report, and published in July 2011.[1] The inquiry was ordered to look at child protection practices in the diocese and how it dealt with complaints against 19 priests made from 1996.[2]

Misrepresentation by Bishop Magee

In February 2008, the Irish Government referred two allegations of child sex abuse to the National Board for Safeguarding Children, an independent supervisory body established by the Irish bishops, led by Mr Ian Elliott. When the chief executive of that body made contact with the diocese on the matter, he was met with lack of co-operation. Meetings held with Bishop John Magee and representatives of the diocese in March failed to elicit his full co-operation with the National Board for Child Protection's investigation. As per BBC News, "The report found that Bishop John Magee falsely told the government and the health service that his diocese was reporting all abuse allegations to authorities. It also found that the bishop deliberately misled another inquiry and his own advisors by creating two different accounts of a meeting with a priest suspecting of abusing a child, one for the Vatican and the other for diocesan files".[2]

Media disclosures

In April 2008, Justine McCarthy, a journalist with the Sunday Tribune, broke the story of the impending scandal in the diocese of Cloyne. There followed a number of hastily arranged meetings between Magee, Monsignor Denis O'Callaghan, (the Vicar General of Cloyne), and Dean Eamon Gould with representatives of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (or Safeguarding for short). These resulted in O'Callaghan handing over documentation concerning the two cases referred by the Irish Government to Safeguarding.

On 28 June 2008, Ian Elliott, the chief executive officer of Safeguarding, completed a damning report on the handling of both cases by Magee, by his delegate for Child Protection, O'Callaghan, and by his inter-diocesan case management committee. The Elliot Report was examined by that case management committee on 9 July 2008, and it adopted a position threatening Elliot and Safeguarding with legal action were they to publish the Report. In the meantime, Elliott passed the report to the Irish Government and to the minister for Children, Barry Andrews who did not read the report but passed it to the Health Service Executive to compile another report on it.

Political recommendations

In December 2008, Deputy Sean Sherlock of the Labour Party raised the matter in the press and demanded a Dáil discussion of the handling of Child Sex Abuse in Cloyne.[3] Further press coverage led to the publication of the Elliott Report by Bishop Magee on 19 December 2008. The contents of the Report were shocking and concluded that Bishop Magee's actions, and those of his agent's in this area, were inadequate and in some respects were dangerous.

There followed a chorus of demands for Bishop Magee's resignation. The demands were renewed in January 2009 with the publication of the HSE Report commissioned by the Minister for Children which uncovered a number of other cases which had not been reported to the authorities or dealt with according to self-regulatory procedures. The Minister rejected a recommendation of the Health Executive Service report that the Cloyne case not be referred to the Dublin Tribunal of Investigation into Child Abuse and, following a Cabinet meeting held on 7 January, he referred Cloyne to the Dublin Tribunal which published a report in November 2009.

Public consequences

It now remains to be seen whether a member of the public will make complaint to the Garda Síochána (Irish police force) against Bishop Magee and/or Monsignor Denis O'Callaghan under the terms of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 which provides for a new offence of reckless endangerment of children. This came into effect on 1 August 2006.

This offence may be committed by a person who has authority or control over a child or an abuser and who intentionally or recklessly endangers a child by:

Causing or permitting any child to be placed or left in a situation which creates a substantial risk to the child of being a victim of serious harm or sexual abuse or failing to take reasonable steps to protect a child from such a risk while knowing that the child is in such a situation. This offence may be prosecuted only by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The penalty is a fine (no upper limit) and/or a maximum of 10 years imprisonment.

Apologies

In January 2009, Magee apologised to victims of clerical sex abuse after a report compiled by the Health Service Executive (HSE) found his diocese had put children at risk of harm through an "inability" to respond appropriately to abuse allegations. In spite of "a large number of calls for his resignation" the Bishop signalled his intention to remain.[4]

Further analysis in January 2009 suggested that the bishop and diocese staff were sparing with details of allegations, and that Bishop Magee might have to resign, but also that the Irish government had not yet legislated for all the improvements in the law of evidence that were called for in the Ferns Report of 2005.[5][6]

Intervention by Rome

On 7 March 2009 Pope Benedict appointed Archbishop Dermot Clifford of Cashel and Emly as apostolic administrator of the Cloyne diocese, though Bishop Magee remained Bishop in title.[7][8] Bishop Magee requested that the Pope take this action on 4 February. Bishop Magee said that he would use the time to "devote the necessary time and energy to cooperating fully with the government Commission of Inquiry into child protection practices and procedures in the diocese of Cloyne". In accordance with canon law, an apostolic administrator is named for an open-ended interim period. Bishop Magee's resignation was formally accepted by the Vatican on 24 March 2010.[9][10]

Judicial Inquiry report, July 2011

Due to the success of the 2009 Murphy Report, a judicial inquiry into the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin, the same team was reappointed to investigate allegations surrounding the diocese of Cloyne. Its remit included investigating the state's health and policing practices as well as the Church itself. Judge Murphy's Inquiry issued its report on 13 July 2011.[11][12] The findings of fact included that:

Taoiseach and other reaction

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Cloyne Report – In Detail". RTÉ News. 13 July 2011.
  2. 1 2 BBC News: Cloyne report: A detailed guide as of 13 July 2011
  3. ↑ New church sex abuse guidelines published next month, Justine McCarthy, Sunday Tribune, 14 December 2008, retrieved 17 November 2009
  4. ↑ The Irish Times: “Andrews refers Cloyne to Dublin abuse commission”, January 7, 2009
  5. ↑ Irish Times, 8 January 2009, p.8
  6. ↑ Sunday Independent, 11 January 2009, p.24
  7. ↑ Bishop Magee steps aside over Cloyne controversy, Eoin Burke-Kennedy, The Irish Times, 7 March 2009, retrieved 9 March 2009
  8. ↑ BBC
  9. ↑ Acceptance of resignation
  10. ↑ RTE news article on Bishop Magee's resignation, 24 March 2010
  11. ↑ Cloyne report finds failures by church, State agencies Irish Times, 13 July 2011]
  12. ↑ Commission of Investigation: Report into the Catholic Diocese of Cloyne DocumentCloud.org. Retrieved: 18 July 2011.
  13. ↑ Commission of Investigation Report in the Catholic Diocese of Cloyne: Motion Houses of the Oireachtas Dáil Éireann Debate Vol. 737 No. 11 Unrevised Page 13 of 263, 20 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  14. ↑ "Enda Kenny speech on Cloyne Report". RTÉ News. 20 July 2011.
  15. ↑ McDonald, Henry (20 July 2011). "Irish prime minister attacks Vatican". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 18 July 2011. This and many other reports included "narcissism" with "dysfunction" et al. The Dáil Éireann Debate transcript cited here has been asserted as authoritative by User:O'Dea, who also said video at YouTube confirmed the transcript.
  16. ↑ Taylor, Charlie (21 July 2011). "Reaction to Kenny's Cloyne speech". Irish Times. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  17. 1 2 "Irish PM attacks Vatican over abuse cover-up". english.aljazeera.net. 20 July 2011.
  18. ↑ "Six One News: Diarmuid Martin disappointed with Vatican 'cabal'". RTÉ News. 20 July 2011.
  19. ↑ "Alan Shatter speech on Cloyne Report". RTÉ News. 20 July 2011.
  20. ↑ Cunningham, Grainne; Sheahan, Fionnan; Pisa, Nick (20 July 2011). "Vatican spokesman rejects findings of cloyne report". The Independent.
  21. ↑ "Present status of clerics mentioned in the Cloyne report". Cloyne Diocese. July 2011.

External links

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