POPE BENEDICT has said he hopes this week’s meeting in Rome with the Irish Bishops’ Conference “would help to unify the bishops and enable them to speak with one voice in identifying concrete steps aimed at bringing healing to those who have been abused”.
He also hoped the meeting would help in “encouraging a renewal of faith in Christ and restoring the church’s spiritual and moral credibility”.
His view was conveyed in a communique issued yesterday at the conclusion of three lengthy discussions on the clerical child sex abuse crisis in Ireland which took place in the Vatican yesterday and on Monday.
The talks involved 24 Irish bishops, seven of the most senior curial cardinals as well as the pope himself.
Last night victims’ groups expressed dismay at the outcome of the meeting, criticising the bishops for failing to even discuss the possibility of further resignations.
In his statement, Pope Benedict said all participants at the meeting had “examined the failure of Irish church authorities for many years to act effectively in dealing with cases involving the sexual abuse of young people by some Irish clergy and religious”.
Referring to the sexual abuse of children as “not only a heinous crime, but also a grave sin which offends God and wounds the dignity of the human person created in his image”, he pointed to “the more general crisis of faith affecting the church” and its role in the abuse issue. This “weakening of faith has been a significant contributing factor in the phenomenon of the sexual abuse of minors”, he said.
On his planned pastoral “to the Catholics of Ireland”, he said that this would now be completed “taking into account the comments of the Irish bishops” and would be issued during Lent.
Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said yesterday the letter may even be ready for the Irish Bishops’ Conference spring meeting in two weeks’ time but would certainly be published before Easter.
At a press conference held by the Irish bishops yesterday afternoon, Cardinal Seán Brady said the pope had “given a strong message of encouragement” to them in dealing with an issue which “he recognised was not an Irish problem, not an Anglophone problem, not a Catholic Church problem”.
The Bishop of Ferns Denis Brennan said that while “victims were central to all our discussions and remain a top priority”, no plans were made for such individuals to meet the pope. He was sure the pope would do so “when the time is right”, he said. Cardinal Brady said there had been no discussions of bishops resigning.
“That is a matter between the bishops [concerned] and the Holy See. It would not be appropriate for us to give opinions on the matter.”
The cardinal also said that were the remit of the Murphy commission to be extended to other dioceses in Ireland, the Catholic Church “will co-operate fully with that inquiry”.
The Bishop of Clogher Joseph Duffy told RTÉ last night that, regarding the Vatican and the Irish church: “We share responsibility for not doing the job as it should be done. I think that’s only fair to say that.”
After the meeting, Dublin abuse survivor Andrew Madden said “it would appear that self-preservation and damage limitation for the Catholic Church is still a higher priority . . . than the concerns and wishes of people who had been sexually abused”.
Christine Buckley, of the Aislinn Centre, described the Vatican meeting as “a charade”, while One in Four executive director Maeve Lewis said the pope’s response was “extremely inadequate”. Rape Crisis Network director Fiona Neary said it was “shocking” to hear the pope linking the weakening of faith to the abuse of children.