(The Nationalist, 19 April 2002)
The case of Brendan Smith, the serial child sex abuser, became a matter of public knowledge seven years ago. Since then, what we all thought of as an isolated case has become just one of many. There are now over forty priests and religious in jail in Ireland, serving sentences for similar crimes.
The recent case of Seán Fortune of the diocese of Ferns attracted a great deal of media attention, not so much because it happened as because it went on unchecked for so long. How could the church have failed to act to defend children, people ask – and rightly.
The church has not helped itself by the impression from recent TV discussions that the bishops are not united in following their own guidelines for dealing with the issue. Some, it seems, follow them, others don’t. The Vatican has complicated matters by laying down that such cases should be referred to it by the diocese concerned. That is an unworkable idea, both because of the number of cases involved and the differences in local situations. A “One size fits all” approach to every case from Ireland to Thailand, from Dublin to Durban cannot work.
The failure of the church effectively to put its house in order has resulted in the recent decision to set up a State enquiry into the affair in Ferns, and church leaders had no choice but to welcome it. To have done otherwise would have implied a cover up. It seems likely that this enquiry will have to be extended to the whole country, including religious orders.
The tradition in the church is, I regret to say, one of covering up rather than clearing up, fudging issues instead of facing them. The church is too slow and too secretive. We are now paying the price for that in lost credibility. Church leaders appear to be responding to media pressure, or to anxiety about money, rather than out of moral concern. They have lost respect and trust. Laypeople, priests and religious question the commitment as well as the ability of church leadership to face this issue and deal with it firmly and openly.
The present crisis illustrates two points. The first is that lesser problems become larger ones if they are not deal with. The second is that the church needs credible structures of dialogue, participation, accountability and subsidiarity. It does not have them at present.
I would like to see the priests of Ireland stand up and say to bishops and superiors of orders, ‘We want you to clear up this mess, openly and honestly. We will support you in doing so. If you fail, you will lose our respect and our loyalty’.