Anger and disappointment in Ireland as the Pope’s letter fails to heal
telegraph.co.uk
Victims of abuse at the hands of priests in Ireland are not satisfied by the Pope’s letter of apology
By Carissa Casey in Dublin
21 Mar 2010Marie Collins is still a practising Catholic despite years of pain and frustration fighting the Irish Catholic hierarchy. In 1960, when she was 13, she was sexually abused by a chaplain at Crumlin Hospital Dublin – but didn’t report the abuse until 1995. Then, she said, "All I got was lies and deceit from the archdiocese [of Dublin]. I was bullied and threatened."
Last year she discovered from a report by Judge Yvonne Murphy into the Dublin dioscese’s handling of sex abuse allegations that the archbishop at the time knew of complaints about her abuser – and so did the Irish police. But nothing was done and the priest continued abusing children in his care. A softly-spoken woman of 63, Mrs Collins was not expecting much of the Pope’s long-awaited apology yesterday. But even so, she was visibly disappointed.
"I had no great hope for this letter but there’s still a sense of let-down," she said. "The Pope blames it all on the secularisation of Irish society and the misinterpretation of canon law. He takes no responsibility at all for the Vatican’s role in the cover up of abuse. There’s no acknowledgement that it’s a worldwide problem for the Church, or that victims weren’t just ignored, they were bullied into silence."
Married with one son, Mrs Collins has devoted most of the last decade to pressuring the Irish Church to come clean on sex abuse and now campaigns for the Irish sex abuse victim support group, One in Four. She said the battle had damaged her faith. "It’s a struggle but I’m trying to hang on," she said. "I need something more to hang on to. I need a sense of morality"…
I find the Pope’s letter shocking in its clue-less-ness and lack of responsibility — but it is not surprising.
This is the same man — yes, man, not god — who on the eve of his trip to Africa urged people in that AIDS-devastated region not to use condoms to prevent spreading the virus. Presumably, this advice included even HIV positive men in having sex with their wives or else remain celibate..
His own involvement in an abuse scandal is getting pretty close. He was Archbishop in Germany when an abusive priest was reassigned to work with children after the man’s psychiatrist had warned against allowing him to do that. It’s likely that he didn’t personally know about the case, but he was in charge and officially approved the reassignment.
Has he addressed his own role in this? Not yet, as far as I know.
Why does any thinking person still give him any credibility?