A study commissioned by the Catholic Church on the impact of clerical child sex abuse on Irish society will be published in Dublin today.
Titled "Time to Listen: Confronting Child Sexual Abuse by Catholic Clergy in Ireland", it was commissioned in January 2001 by the bishops' committee on child abuse, now the Bishops' Committee on Child Protection, and conducted by the Health Services Research Centre at the Department of Psychology in Dublin's Royal College of Surgeons.
In attendance at today's launch will be the Catholic Primate, Archbishop Seán Brady, the Bishop of Dromore, Most Rev John McAreavey, the Bishop of Clogher, Most Rev Joseph Duffy, and the team which conducted the study - Prof Hannah McGee, Prof Ciarán O'Boyle and research co-ordinator Ms Helen Goode.
Writing in The Irish Times in November last year about the then ongoing study, Ms Goode said they had then "just completed a national survey on the impact of clerical child sexual abuse and its management, on public attitudes to the church, its priests and faith in general."
They had found that "77 per cent of over 1,000 members of the public surveyed believed that the Catholic Church has mismanaged child sexual abuse by its clergy.
"Almost all, 94 per cent, saw the church as damaged because of clerical child sexual abuse, with half of those surveyed believing that damage to be permanent. The majority, 84 per cent, also felt they had not been kept adequately informed about clerical child sexual abuse by the church. Almost all, 93 per cent, said they believed in God, one-third or 36 per cent said their religious practices had been negatively affected in some way by revelations of clerical child sexual abuse. Most, 72 per cent, believed that the majority of clergy had been unfairly judged because of the revelations."
Asked if priests should be allowed to return to ministry following child sexual abuse, "almost all, 92 per cent, of those surveyed were opposed". But "with three conditions in place - that the priest had undergone psychological treatment, that he be supervised by another priest and that his duties not involve contact with children - a third or 36 per cent of the public would allow him back to ministry."
She said public opinion on these issues was likely to be affected by media revelations.
"We conducted the survey earlier this year, from January to May \, and had interviewed just over half of our sample when the BBC documentary Suing the Pope was televised.
"Views obtained after this documentary were significantly more critical of the church's management of clerical child sexual abuse."
The study had also found that "most of the public surveyed believed that media coverage of child sexual abuse has been beneficial".
Its findings posed "at least four key challenges". These included how the church would heal the enormous damage caused by clerical child sexual abuse, how it would rehabilitate and manage clerical perpetrators while developing a preventive approach in which child protection would be the priority.
