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The first response to pressure from above to sever the diseased limbs in an effor to keep the effect of the malignancy from spreading to the higher organs...especially the brains of the conspiracy at the top. How many more limbs will have to be amputated before the organization can feel safe...this time around? How many more malignancies in this organism are out there, each one a ticking time bomb the world doesn't know about...yet?

Is this really to be the extent of the price paid by those who knowingly covered for, and in some ways facilitated, child abusers?

If they were anyone other than bishops they would facing criminal charges.

Flibbly - we've had this debate several times and William has put up a piece from a group of human rights lawyers outlining why they, or any other persons in similar situations, would almost certainly not be facing criminal charges.

The law simply doesn't provide for it and it doesn't matter whether they're bishops or bakers or candle-stick makers.

Lots of people have called for the full rigour of the law to apply. I'd say it is or will but there won't any charges.

Aside from that, how could you ask someone to freely cooperate with an inquiry and then prosecute them using evidence they had given you. In these circumstances you would never find out anything. People would "take the 5th" so to speak and essentially there would have been no Ryan or Murphy Reports.

The trail of accusation leads right to the top.

Do not forget the revelations about Crimen Sollicitationis which emerged in the wake of the Ferns Report.



Cover-up, complicity, aiding and abetting, ..... the Vatican itself should be called to account.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Has everyone forgotten that there has already been a Garda (police) inquiry into how the Dublin Archdiocese handled claims of child abuse. The results were reported in the Irish Independent on 18 September 2006 under the heading "Abuse Probe Grinds to a Halt". The following are extracts:
A FOUR-year garda inquiry into allegations that the Catholic Church covered up child sex abuse in Ireland's largest diocese has failed to produce sufficient evidence to lay charges against any senior church figures. ...
Victims of paedophile priests had hoped that a dedicated core of National Bureau of Criminal Investigation detectives would confirm widespread allegations that the Church concealed the activities of abusive priests in Dublin. But the Irish Independent has learned that no charges are pending against senior diocesan officials. ....
Twenty detectives have been assigned to the so-called "God Squad" since 2002. But despite evidence that priests were transferred to other parishes, where they continued to abuse, and despite public admissions by senior figures that not all relevant information was passed to the civil authorities, no charges will be laid against senior members of the church. ...
Marie Collins, who brokered the historic apology in 2002 from Cardinal Connell, has expressed disappointment with the level of liaison between detectives and some victims who made statements regarding the handling of their complaints by senior diocesan personnel."I'm sorry to admit now that I have lost my faith in the garda inquiry," said Ms Collins, who was abused by Fr Paul McGennis, a hospital chaplain, in 1960 when she was aged 13.
Four years and 20 detectives is an awful lot of resources to put into a HISTORIC inquiry - especially one that produces no concrete benefits at all. And now there are people who want the whole exercise repeated. Is that really the best way to ensure that children are protected? Or do they just want senior churchmen jailed irrespective of the evidence?

Previous to the above inquiry (2002 to 2006) there was a three year Garda investigation of allegations of child abuse made against the Cgristian Brothers in Artane. I think that practically every Brother who ever worked there was accused - about 75 men. Again the results were summarised in an Irish Independent article dated 4 September 2003 - entitled:

ARTANE: Ten Gardai, A Three-Year Inquiry . . But Only One Prosecution

A THREE-and-a-half year Garda investigation into a raft of sexual and physical abuse complaints against Christian Brothers at the former Artane boys industrial school in Dublin resulted in a single criminal prosecution. ......

The sole prosecution has not yet been determined by the courts. The accused, a 65-year-old Christian Brother, who cannot be named, was charged in July 1999 with 53 sexual offences allegedly committed in the Artane school. .....

Ten gardai including a detective sergeant were assigned full-time to working on the Artane inquiry in early 1998. The inquiry arose out of an initial small number of complaints from former pupils of the school and it then began to "mushroom". The ten-person team worked permanently on the investigation for almost 18 months and took well over a thousand statements from potential witnesses. ....... The future of the sole criminal prosecution is expected to be determined next month.

In fact the sole criminal prosecution was only finalised earlier THIS year when one Christian Brother from Artane was convicted of indecent assault. To put this into context, you could launch an investigation into ANY long established school in this country. If you provide a team of 10 Gardai, allow them to investigate for 3 years and then allow another 7 years for the judicial process, you could well come up with ONE conviction for indecent assault. The question is if this is the best use of Garda resources? Are children so safe nowadays, is crime so low, that society can afford to allocate resources in this way?

William Crawley:

Yes, I am very sadden with the Bishop Resignation but, he is doing
the just thing!

=Dennis Junior=

Kilbarry - I cannot allow your comments to pass unchallenged: there is another conclusion we might draw from the evidence you present.

I have some knowledge of what happened at Artane and the failure to secure more prosecutions says quite a bit about An Garda Siochana but nothing at all about the prevalence of abuse in the Industrial School.

When the RUC was (justifiably) accused of collusion with loyalist paramilitaries it was thought appropriate that senior officers from an outside force investigate the allegations. I think it is inexplicable that there have not been louder calls for perhaps American officers to explore the relationship at institutional level between the Garda and the Roman Catholic Church in the Republic.

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