Catholic bishops have insisted they accept the principle of acting on expert professional advice when dealing with child sex abuse.
In a statement last night, the Irish Bishops Conference said they and relevant church bodies were committed to resolving difficulties which had arisen with the now dissolved Lynott working group. The group, headed by management consultant Ms Maureen Lynott, was set up by the church last year to prepare child protection guidelines.
It dissolved itself on September 16th following disagreement with the church steering committee. This week's autumn meeting of the Irish bishops at Maynooth is the first since then.
They said in their statement last night that they, the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI), and the Irish Missionary Union (IMU) - the bodies which sponsored the Lynott working group on behalf of the church in Ireland - were "determined to move forward and we are confident that our steering committee will bring this work to a successful conclusion". The process "for updating a child protection policy for the church is ongoing", they said.
They conveyed their "sincere appreciation" to Ms Lynott and "to the entire membership of the working group, for their commitment and hard work done to date in bringing their document to its present stage".
They reiterated that the documentation "so far elaborated, deals with a very complex subject. The reality is that there is much more agreement than points of difference between all of those concerned".
Concerned at media coverage of the disagreement with the Lynott group, the bishops said they wished to state for the record that "the sponsoring bodies have never rejected the principle of acting on expert advice when dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse".
They pointed out that "since the publication of the framework document, known as 'The Green Book' (1996), it has been our practice to follow, in good faith, the best professional advice".
They continued that "the sponsoring bodies accept that the advice of professionals is an essential part of the process of responding to an allegation of child sexual abuse".
The sponsoring bodies "also acknowledge that the bishop or religious superior must conscientiously take those decisions for which he or she bears fundamental responsibility. That does not mean that the bishop or superior should ignore expert advice", they said.
