A fortnight after the report, and a reaction at last.
..the Holy Father was deeply disturbed and distressed ..The Holy Father shares the outrage, betrayal and shame felt by so many of the faithful in Ireland..
Disingenuous and inadequate a survivors group call it. The BBC are reporting that heads will roll and that the Church in Ireland will be reorganised, whatever that means. Only a papal visit and a public apology in Ireland would allow the Vatican to atone for decades of clerical child sex abuse, a leading victims’ organisation said.
Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (Soca) said the “sin against our children was so immense that it requires an immense gesture on the pope’s part”.
Irish Soca said a papal visit and apology should be combined with a “diocese-by-diocese inquiry across the island of Ireland” to investigate the scale of abuse of children by priests and religious orders
So Ireland awaits a pastoral letter from the Pope to tell them what’s going to happen. Odd to say the least in the 21st century that the national leaders of the church have to attend as suppliants to a monarchical system at a 90 minute meeting. Sinead O’Connor would go a lot further…
Former BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London