PANORAMA AND POPE BENEDICT
Added on October 6, 2006
Irish Times, Letters page, 4 October 2006
Madam, -
Sean O'Conaill (October 3rd) asks what exactly prevented bishops from reporting instances of clerical child abuse to the civil authorities. It may seem like a cruel question for victims and their parents, but what prevented them going directly to the police? When people reported such things to bishops rather than the police, what did they think would happen?
Bishops have no skills in criminal investigation. They have no authority to arrest or detain anyone for questioning. They have no forensic division.
When people reported to bishops they hoped for a shortcut - that "something would be done" which would prevent their suffering any further. And so bishops resorted to psychiatrists, counselling, promises and in many cases simply a move of parishes. But let us not kid ourselves that this sorry mess is all down to bishops. Any parent who went to a bishop instead of the police must accept some responsibility for the situation we are in.
As for the Panorama programme itself, is this supposed to be investigative journalism? An old document that has been in the public domain for years, misrepresentations, and a rather pathetic attempt to implicate the Pope, presumably to facilitate someone's lawsuit?
Unfortunately, what we've come to expect from the BBC.
- Yours, etc,
Christopher McCamley,
Newtown
Drogheda,
Co Louth.