“To prevent the sexual abuse of children”, the Church will work “in collaboration with other agencies involved in the protection of juveniles”. It will also clearly define “a protocol on how to handle the denunciation of priests” in this field also through the setting up of a national children’s protection office (CPO) and will “improve the quality of personnel training and spiritual support to priests”. These are just some of the recommendations contained in the report “Time to listen, tackling sexual abuse on children by the Catholic clergy in Ireland”, presented in Dublin in recent days. The inquiry on which the report is based, commissioned by the Irish Bishops’ Conference (IBC) in 2001, was conducted by the Research Centre of the Department of Psychology of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland (RCSI). “I once again express, on behalf of all the bishops, my deepest sorrow” for “the horror of the sexual abuse on children” perpetrated “by some of our priests”, said Seán Brady, archbishop of Armagh and president of the IBC, intervening on the presentation of the report. He added that “Catholic bishops are called to study its findings and conclusions, and follow its recommendations, some of which have already been implemented”. From a sample of a thousand citizens contacted by telephone by researchers involved in the inquiry, some decline of trust in the Church as an institution emerged, even though 39% of those interviewed judged the situation “better than in the past”. The Church’s efforts to tackle the problem were however evaluated positively. Hannah McGee, head of the Department of Psychology, who coordinated the research, commented: “The process aimed at regaining the trust we have lost must be transparent. It is a slow process in which we need once again to earn people’s esteem”.
