Church abuse survivors deserve justice
March 18, 2011
FOLLOWING Archbishop Martin’s recent comments made whilst speaking in Public at the “Ethics For All” themed series of Public Lectures, at the Mater Dei Institute for Education, I would like to point something out.
The archbishop referred, in his prepared speech, to matter of pluralism, and mentioned the failings of state and of parental care that indeed do need addressing.
“There have been many cases where parental neglect has resulted in serious damage to children. We need mechanisms to ensure that the rights of children are adequately protected.”
This we know. Pot and Kettle? Not quite. It’s much worse than name-calling. What Archbishop Martin omitted from his speech, according to the reports, was that the failings of his own institution, have yet to be fully acknowledged, and therefore, with all haste, the church must made be subject to public, civil, open-ended, lifetime commitment to restorative justice and materially meaningful action by way of remorse and making restoration.
Such action is to be continued until such time as we, the survivors, and we, the people know that our children are safe, respected, being nurtured and encouraged, treated with dignity and empathy, across Irish society. Archbishop Martin, you must do this in the first instance for all those parents who are survivors or children of survivors themselves and in communities of isolated survivors over nearly four generations.
Then, when all that is in place and accepted by survivors, and by society, if it turns out that there are issues with parenting and the care of children in other sectors of Irish society, elsewhere, your comments might be welcome. You might have learned a thing or two.
You may well be attempting to mitigate the charge against the church. It is part of a pattern, a bad habit you must learn to break. We cannot be sure.
The luxury of mitigation does not exist in a moral world, for a case such as this. The church, as an institution, must face justice on the merits of the case.
Just as the state institutions and individual paedophiles must face justice on the merits of their cases.
Conchubour Ui Cruadhlaoich
London
England
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Friday, March 18, 2011
