Bishop would welcome any abuse inquiry

Child protection guidelines and policies in the Killaloe Diocese will be subjected to rigorous scrutiny when a national church body conducts a comprehensive inquiry later this year, Bishop Kieran O’Reilly has revealed.
The body, which oversees the implementation of the guidelines in all dioceses, has conducted one audit in addition to reviews carried out by the HSE. Bishop O’Reilly expects this will be carried out in the Killaloe Diocese in the autumn, once dates are agreed between the two parties.
The audit will involve all aspects of child protection, including identifying child protection training personnel in the diocese, what advisory board is in place, who the members are, the handling of previous child abuse cases and procedures for making material concerning child abuse allegations available to the statutory authorities.
In an exclusive interview, Bishop O’Reilly confirmed he would welcome any Government or non-government agency conducting an independent inquiry into how child abuse allegations and protection were being conducted in the Killaloe Diocese.
He stressed the diocese would co-operate fully with any inquiry as he felt the policies and procedures put in place by the diocese “would stand up to any scrutiny”.
Already, the Killaloe Diocese has paid €1.9 million to victims following 55 complaints involving 15 priests, all of which related to dates between 1955 and 1990, of alleged child abuse.
The pay-out of almost €2m was funded from the sale of diocesan land at Westbourne to Ennis Urban Council and that fund has now been exhausted.
Bishop O’Reilly sent an address to the parishes last Sunday to assure parishioners that everything that is being required by the diocese is being done.
Once a person comes to anyone in the diocese with an allegation of child abuse, they are told that this allegation has to be reported to the gardaí, the HSE and church authorities.
“Anyone who rings up with a new or an old allegation are told that we have to report this to the relevant authorities. Even if a person asks us not to report it, we tell them we have to,” he told The Clare Champion.
As soon as Bishop O’Reilly heard the Cloyne Report was being published, he asked priests in the diocese to meet in their own clusters so that they would have an opportunity to meet and give each other support.
Bishop O’Reilly has received feedback from priests that they found this preparation very helpful. Although none of the priests said they felt particularly damaged by this report, the bishop acknowledged there has been a cumulative affect of priests being left feeling vulnerable because of the succession of reports in recent years.
Having visited numerous parishes, the bishop has found tremendous support from parishioners for their own priests, which he felt was marvellous.
“People who know our priests and have seen their work hold them in extraordinary respect and regard. They have provided tremendous support for our priests on the ground. Our priests have taken serious knocks when the Ferns, Murphy, Ryan and now Cloyne reports were published. It affects all of us, me and the rest of the bishops,” he said.
The bishop admitted he was still in a state of “shock” about the contents of the Cloyne Report. “It is hard for someone who comes from there and who loves Cobh. My father comes from Cobh, it is centre of the diocese, which is where the cathedral is. My father’s people and grandparents are from Cobh. It is a very special place for my family and me.
“It is very sad to see the people from Cobh commenting on a report, which you would think would never come from such a beautiful place. I don’t know who were abused in Cloyne, it is awful to think this happened in a place we all love. We know the beautiful cathedral, which my parents and grandparents helped to build through donations.
“Peoples’ faith has been rocked. It is one more heavy storm that has rocked people. Over the last four or five years the church has had a succession of reports, one more damaging than the other,” he conceded.
Bishop O’Reilly acknowledged that trust is placed in people to do the right thing but what is even more frightening is that the tenets of the gospel were not followed.
“You are rattled in your faith. Many things can rattle you; a death, a trauma or something like this. It rattled everyone. What is the most damaging thing is the sense of trust has now been broken. It was always a wonderful thing, people did trust priests but now something has snapped,” he said.

Bishop O’Reilly admitted he was shocked that Bishop Magee and Monsignor Denis O’Callaghan didn’t act appropriately, particularly since the guidelines on child clerical abuse were already in place.
“This was not done here. It is hard to accept and believe that. It comes from a different culture and understanding in society, which is much wider than the Church,” he maintained.
He said there seemed to be a culture in Ireland of “ah sure, we will be alright, we will pass up on this” which wouldn’t work now and was totally inappropriate
“Church culture takes time to change. It can only change with people with vision, people like Bishop Willie (Walsh) coming out and saying this can’t go on, which would be my own position,” he stated.
Bishop O’Reilly recalled that his predecessor Bishop Walsh was “exemplary” in the way he handled this issue and believes he would not be found wanting in his actions.
Asked about Church self-regulation for child abuse, Bishop O’Reilly acknowledged this would always be perceived to be a problem.
However, in the Killaloe Child Protection Advisory Board, he explained this included people such as solicitors, social workers, former principals, a university lecturer and two counsellors.
“In the absence of any State control, the Church is obliged to put the best committee we can in place for the protection of children. You would hope that this is no longer a clerical world that organises this amongst themselves. This is the best advice we can have available from professionally qualified lay people in our diocese. They are the people I would be relying upon for my advice.
“It is always a shortcoming. There will always be 1% you may not be sure about but you can only hope that best practice is being put into place. Self-regulation is always a problem. If the Government puts a new system in place, we will co-operate fully with it,” he said.
He acknowledged that self-regulation hadn’t worked in the Cloyne Diocese judging by the damning contests of the report.
To victims who are still carrying burdens through silence, the bishop urged them to come and seek help for themselves. “There is no sense trying to carry something that could be carried with proper care. No human should be asked to carry burdens of pain that would bring them to the end of their endurance. They need support to give them strength.
“Any diocese where this has been the case has to do everything it can to help and support people. I appealed to anyone in the diocese who had information about child sexual abuse to make contact with one of the diocese-designated persons, relevant authorities or a support service of their choice. The main thing is that they don’t feel locked into a world of pain and suffering. Through reaching out and speaking out they will be in a position to get help and support to rebuild their lives,” he explained.
Posters will be provided to all churches providing contact information for anyone who has information about child sexual abuse.     Up to 78 people will be trained on child protection guidelines by the diocese’s two trainers as part of a new training programme in October. Fifty people have already trained and there will be an overlap between the two programmes.
Bishop O’Reilly stressed it is important for the Church not to be lax, as there is always a need for constant vigilance monitoring, checking and updating of their own guidelines.