Church plans to publish annual abuse claims against priests

Saturday January 29th 2005

Religious and Social Affairs Correspondent

THE CATHOLIC Church is to make public each year the number of abuse allegations made against priests and other church personnel in the previous 12 months.

This is part of a reporting requirement contained in its as yet unpublished child protection policy, and it will mean that the Church will become the only organisation in the country to publish such data.

The new policy, which has been seen by the Irish Independent, will also cover the training of priests and will stress the importance of candidates for the priesthood being able to "relate appropriately to children and adults" before ordination.

The policy even covers the use of computers and computer images in church settings.

The reporting requirement is a crucial element in ensuring that the new policy - called 'Our Children, Our Church' - is implemented properly throughout the Church in all dioceses and religious orders.

Publication of an annual report will follow an audit of the response of the Church nationally to all allegations and suspicions of child abuse.

The report, which will be made public, will reveal not only the number of allegations received in the previous 12 months but also the outcome of each of the subsequent investigations.

This means that the Irish Church will follow the example of the Catholic Church in both America and the Britain, where annual reports of this sort are already being published.

The current situation here is that no aggregate national figures for abuse allegations are available, not even internally.

The policy also stipulates that all candidates for the priesthood be assessed to ensure that they "have achieved a sufficient level of maturity - particularly affective and emotional maturity". If it is judged that they do not, they will not be accepted for training. In practice, this is already happening, although it has not been stated policy.

It is also stipulated that those in preparation, whether for the priesthood or religious life, cannot be ordained or professed unless "formation personnel are satisfied that the future priest/religious can relate appropriately both to children and adults before presenting him/her for ordination or final vows".

In addition, the policy will require that all church bodies, including parishes, will have a clear statement on the use of computers - including a ban on sending "offensive emails" or receiving, viewing or sending pornography of any kind.

Computers used by young people will have to have the proper "filtering software" to ensure that they cannot access inappropriate material.

Previous drafts of the new policy have already been reported. This is the latest and final draft and was agreed on Thursday by the expert group charged with drawing it up.

The main purpose of the policy is to set out compulsory procedures aimed at preventing abuse happening in the first place, and detailing what must be done when an abuse incident is reported.

David Quinn

? Irish Independent