Inquiry into clerical abuse will only name known offenders Sunday, May 17, 2009 By John Burke The statutory inquiry into clerical abuse in the Dublin archdiocese will identify only abusers whose names are already in the public domain.
The Sunday Business Post has learned that the report, which is near completion, will only publicly name priests who have either previously been convicted in court or those who have ‘‘a notorious reputation’’. This means that no new names of abusive clerics will emerge from the long awaited report, which will detail widespread evidence of repeat offences.
The report covers alleged claims of abuse against priests who were based in the diocese between 1975 and 2004,mostly during the period of Cardinal Desmond Connell’s stewardship as archbishop of Dublin.
The majority of priests against whom the inquiry has found evidence of sustained and violent abuse are still alive and living in retirement. Several are serving jail terms for multiple cases of abuse.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has told priests and lay workers in the diocese that the report, due to be published at the end of next month, ‘‘will shock us all’’.
It is also understood that the commission of inquiry, which is chaired by Judge Yvonne Murphy, has not yet been sent a copy of the relevant files in relation to the handling of abuse cases in the Cork diocese of Cloyne. Children’s minister Barry Andrews asked the inquiry team last January to investigate the handling of abuse cases in Cloyne over a 13-year period after concerns emerged over how Bishop John Magee had dealt with a number of claims of sexual assault by a priest in the diocese.
While the commission received the cabinet-approved terms of reference in March, it still had not received any of the files from the HSE relating to the facts which it had been asked to investigate.
These are expected to be sent to the inquiry team in the coming weeks, but the July 7 deadline for completion of the Cloyne report is now impossible.
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