Bishop Comiskey acted in accordance with canon law when dealing with abusing priests, writes Carol Coulter
Talking to an alleged abuser, strongly advising him on steps to deal with the problem, giving assurances of the bishop's willingness to provide any reasonable help with treatment or counselling, are all options offered by the textbook on canon law on priests accused of abusing children. They are the measures adopted by Bishop Comiskey and his predecessor, Bishop Herlihy, in Ferns.
The Canon Law: Letter and Spirit, a "practical guide to the code of canon law" published in 1995, also puts forward the idea that a diagnosis of paedophilia is a mitigating factor when a priest is accused of abusing children. If such a diagnosis is made, it suggests, then the emphasis should be on treatment and counselling, not on punishment, and certainly not on removing the priest from duty.
In suggesting that the sexual urges of someone suffering from "paedophilia" are somehow uncontrollable, and therefore the person involved is not really guilty, the book differs from the approach taken by child protection experts and by the civil law. The law treats sexual assaults on children as serious crimes, and an adult perpetrator is normally considered fully responsible for his actions.
Best child protection practice has been taken on board by the Catholic Church in its 2002 Framework Document. But the implications of canon law in this area have not been fully discussed.
The canon law textbook advice that a pastoral solution should be sought, and that the offending priest should be offered counselling rather than penal sanction, accords with the policy followed by Bishop Comiskey and, indeed, the diocese of Dublin, when such allegations were made in the 1980s and 1990s.
Again and again in the Murphy report into how allegations of child abuse were dealt with in the diocese of Ferns, it describes how the priest was confronted, often denied the allegation, and was offered assistance in seeking counselling or treatment, offers which were sometimes taken up, sometimes not.
Throughout the report Bishop Comiskey refers to advice he received from canon lawyers. It is clear this advice often stressed the difficulty involved in removing a priest, whose rights are centre stage.
Little reference is made in The Canon Law to the rights of members of the laity affected by actions of priests, other than "the overall good of the church in its striving for justice for all".