Church 'must talk to experts' over sex abuse allegations
Thursday September 30 2004
The stance by the NCPI puts them at odds with the hierarchy, the Conference of Religious of Ireland and the Irish Missionary Union, all of whom are resisting a recommendation from their own working group on new child-protection procedures that they must refer child abuse allegations to teams of professionals.
Fr John Littleton, president of the NCPI, said it would be "a great sin" if a way out of the impasse was not found.
He told the Irish Independent: "Priests in Ireland want proper child-protection procedures introduced once and for all.
"Anything which holds up their implementation has to be dealt with urgently. It is vital for the Church as well as for the victims that this happen."
Fr Littleton was speaking yesterday at the annual general meeting of the NCPI, which is taking place outside Newry.
The NCPI has drafted its own response to the recommendations of the working group, which was chaired by Maureen Lynott.
The response supports the recommendation of the Lynott group that church leaders make decisions concerning clerical sex abuse allegations only after seeking the advice of professionals.
It then goes on: "There is an urgent need to extend the decision-making process, i.e: the establishment of an independent body of professionals.
"One of the strengths of the draft report is that it presupposes and calls for working together, teamwork and a collaborative framework."
However, the response also insists that "equal consideration be given to the rights of all", including those of accused priests, whenever an allegation of sex abuse is made against a cleric.
In the past, the NCPI has stressed that a priest's reputation can be destroyed by a false allegation of sex abuse. The response reads: "While the NCPI agrees [with the Lynott group] that the welfare and best interests of the child are the primary consideration, it stresses that the rights of priests must be protected and that due process must apply in the case of priests against whom allegations are made."
The topic of this year's AGM of is 'Sharing Pastoral Leadership in a Secular Society'.
The main speaker yesterday was the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Dr Ken Newell.
He told delegates that unless churches listen to the reasons people give for not coming to church and address them, they will not grow.
He said that his own church conducted a survey among non-churchgoers which found that the main reasons for non-attendance were fourfold: the irrelevance of the Church to their ordinary lives; a negative experience of the Church; the hypocrisy of some churchgoers; and excessive dogmatism on the part of the Church.
The NCPI's AGM ends today with a closed session for members only.
- David Quinn
