A woman who is at the centre of one of the most controversial clerical child sex abuse cases handled by the Dublin Archdiocese last night apologised to fellow victims of abuse for putting her trust in Cardinal Desmond Connell.
In December 2002, Marie Collins was central to the calling off of a planned protest march on Archbishop's House in Drumcondra by clerical child sex abuse victims calling for the resignation of then archbishop Connell.
"I want to apologise to all those people I feel I let down in 2002. In deciding to withdraw the call for the cardinal's resignation and in believing the cardinal meant what he said - I was wrong," Mrs Collins told The Irish Times last night.
In 1960, Mrs Collins was abused as a child by Fr Paul McGennis when she was a patient at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children where he was chaplain. He later admitted the abuse.
Fr James Norman, who attended a meeting on December 30th, 1996, in connection with the McGennis case, has confirmed that Cardinal Connell told Mrs Collins there that church guidelines on clerical child sex abuse were "only guidelines" and did not have to be followed.
The cardinal also pointed out then that the church guidelines, published in January 1996, were not binding in canon law, Fr Norman has said.
He had been appointed "support person" to Mrs Collins by the archdiocese, in accordance with the guidelines, after she first made complaints in 1995 about abuse by Fr McGennis.
Fr Norman also confirmed Mrs Collins's claim that the cardinal had said she was trying to ruin Fr McGennis's good name over something that had happened 30 or 40 years before.
He further confirmed that everyone at the meeting was then aware that Fr McGennis had admitted the abuse of Mrs Collins in interviews earlier that year (1996) with Mgr Alex Stenson, chancellor of the archdiocese. The archdiocese refused to confirm that admission to gardaí on confidentiality grounds.
Last night Mrs Collins said that "at the end of 2002, Ken Reilly [another abuse victim] had asked me to support him in organising a protest to call for Cardinal Connell's resignation. Many, many people were behind us.
"We met with the cardinal, at his request, for five hours on the 30th December in Archbishop's House, two days before the planned protest.
"One of the most crucial aspects of that meeting was his constant refusal to say if he would open the diocesan files to the civil authorities. After much difficult discussion, the cardinal eventually gave us an assurance he would open the files.
"He agreed to put this in writing in the form of a press release, which he did that day.
"As a direct result of receiving this assurance of openness and co-operation with the investigation, we agreed to withdraw our call for his resignation. We also agreed to work with the diocese to improve their understanding of the issue of child sex abuse and how it affected the victim.
"I knew that in deciding to trust that the cardinal meant what he said, I might be making a mistake. I knew that, but I felt if there was the slightest chance the words we had heard were sincere then I had to be willing to respond positively.
"When it was heard we had withdrawn the call for the cardinal's resignation, many very good people felt let down, but I hoped in the future they would see the decision was correct. I now know that within months of this meeting and all his assurances, the cardinal was denying the Garda full access to the files and now is trying to keep some of them secret from a State inquiry."
Yesterday, Fr Aidan Troy, parish priest at Holy Cross, Ardoyne, in Belfast, said trust in the Catholic Church was at a very low level following Cardinal Connell's High Court injunction against the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation.
He was speaking on Lunchtime with Eamon Keane on Newstalk Radio.
