Pontilff’s act of contrition provides little succour for the many victims of abuse
IT has taken Pope Benedict XVI a full calendar year to comment on the Ferns Report that published shocking details of child sex abuses or alleged abuses by 26 priests in the small Wexford diocese.
While the Pope’s belated act of contrition and expression of personal hurt are to be welcomed, his statement of regret has not been accompanied by a firm purpose of amendment.
This is in part due to the indirect manner of the Pope’s remarks to the Irish public - made through a press statement issued some hours after the new Bishop of Ferns, Denis Brennan, had met the Pontiff at a private audience in the Vatican.
While Bishop Brennan’s well-meaning press release was designed to restore confidence in the local clergy and laity, its pious tone does not convey any real insight into the policies being pursued by the Pope to eradicate the scourge of priestly rape of children in Church care.
The soothing tone of the statement fails to remind us of the sheer horror of what took place in seminaries and church houses in the diocese of Ferns. The 271-page report, which was clinically put together by former Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Frank Murphy, was a painstakingly lucid account of the full horrors of Ferns.
Its grim findings catapulted the small rural diocese, which covers Co Wexford and part of Co Wicklow, to the top of the Church’s infamy league.
It also accelerated the collapse in the credibility and moral authority not just of the Catholic Church, but also of its doctrinal masters in the Vatican.
Amid all the media commentaries, and the Government’s pledges to inquire into other dioceses, especially the archdiocese of Dublin, Pope Benedict remained silent.
The Pontiff’s lack of comment over the past 12 months disturbed even the most devout of Irish Catholics and caused outrage among victims. It appeared to some that he was doing a Pontius Pilate, washing his hands of the errant Ferns clerics. Even government ministers wondered if the Papacy was in denial about what had happened under ecclesiastical roofs.
His defenders have pointed out that, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had taken the step of defrocking two of the guilty Ferns clergy.
But his remarks yesterday, however sincere, have left the Pontiff open to the charge that he has not taken full stock of the complicity of the Vatican in the Ferns scandal.
This criticism was eloquently underlined last night by Colm O’Gorman, the founder of the One in Four Victims group, when he questioned the Pope’s apparent lack of comprehension of the permanent damage done by rapist priests to the lives of their young victims.
As Mr O’Gorman pointed out, it is Benedict’s duty as the Supreme Pastor of the Universal Church to put into place mandatory practices for the world’s one billion Catholics in regard to child protection.
It remains to be seen if Pope Benedict will address these undiminished concerns when he issues a statement tomorrow at the conclusion of his meetings with Ireland’s 32 bishops.
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