REACTION:TWO WOMEN who have made complaints that they were sexually abused by a priest in the Diocese of Cloyne have criticised the announcement by Bishop John Magee that he is standing aside from administrative duties. His actions do not go far enough, they said yesterday.
Both women have made complaints that they were sexually abused in the 1970s by a priest identified as Fr B in a report by Ian Elliott, chief executive of National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church on the handling of abuse allegations by the Diocese of Cloyne.
One woman, who has alleged she was abused for several years by Fr B, said she was past anger over Dr Magee’s handling of matters but that she was highly cynical about the bishop’s decision to hand over administrative duties so he could assist the Archdiocese of Dublin inquiry.
“I’m well beyond anger and well beyond expecting anything from any of them but I’m just amused and cynical at him saying that he’s going to help with the inquiry which he did everything in his power not to have at all – according to him, the last thing he ever wanted was an inquiry.
“I’m just cynical about it all. That’s exactly how I feel and at the end of the day, he still won’t recognise the victims and what we’ve been through,” said the woman, adding that in her view Dr Magee had no appreciation at all of what it is like to be the victim of clerical sex abuse.
“This business about wanting to help the Dublin inquiry is just a bluff – everybody knows at this stage why he’s going and why he is being made to go so why don’t they come out and say it – instead he’s trying to save face, it’s pathetic really.
“In reality, the parents didn’t want him confirming their children or near their children; that’s the real reason – not that he needs time to concentrate on co-operating with the Dublin Archdiocese inquiry because he didn’t even co-operate with any of the victims,” she said.
The second woman, who alleges that she was abused by Fr B in the early to mid 1970s when she was aged about 14, was equally scathing in her criticism of Bishop Magee’s statement, saying she could find no evidence in it of any admission of failure on his part.
“He’s still coming out of this squeaky clean. He has never admitted to making any mistakes and I heard now that he’s going to keep his palace and his car and his staff so it certainly seems to me that he’s not suffering any sanction,” she said.
“He obviously doesn’t see anything wrong in the way he has handled this – maybe if he uses his time wisely and co-operates with the Dublin Archdiocese inquiry, some good will come of it but it seems to me that he’s as arrogant as ever about all this.”
Meanwhile, the other complainant said she held out very little hope of matters improving in the diocese with the appointment of Archbishop Dermot Clifford as Apostolic Administrator as she had found him to be equally unsympathetic when she made a complaint to him.
“He’s equally awful because when I was getting nowhere with Magee about a year ago, I rang him and he told me that Cloyne was squeaky clean and was almost a model for the rest of the country in the way it handled complaints so I have no faith in him at all,” she said.
-The One in Four organisation yesterday welcomed the decision of the Bishop of Cloyne, John Magee, to step aside.
Maeve Lewis, executive director of the support group, said: “I commend Bishop Magees decision to accept responsibility for the mishandling of allegations of child sexual abuse in the Diocese of Cloyne.
“I believe this represents a major shift in the attitude of the Catholic bishops to child protection within the church.
“Allied with the new Child Protection Guidelines issued by the National Board for Safeguarding Children, the bishops are sending a clear message that the safety of children is now a priority.”
She said Dr Magee’s actions might also bring some comfort to those whose lives had been devastated by sexual abuse.
