Cardinal must put children first
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The Cardinal said yesterday that it had come as a surprise to him that people were offended by his backing for Bishop Magee. In truth, most people would have been surprised if the Cardinal had not been surprised.
Most people would have been surprised if the Cardinal, having deplored the abuse of children by priests (which he did), had gone on to acknowledge Bishop Magee's failings, thanked him for his good work over the years, and regretfully announced the septuagenarian's retirement.
A report by the Catholic Church's own independent National Board for Safeguarding Children had found Bishop Magee's management of child protection to be "inadequate and in some respects dangerous (to children)". The minister with responsibility for children has ordered yet another investigation of the diocese. It all comes down to differing interpretations of the word responsibility. Bishop Magee accepted "responsibility" for what went on in his diocese. The Cardinal believes that the Bishop now has a "responsibility" to stay on.
The two are incompatible. The first implies acceptance of some form of redress; the second states the opposite.
If children's rights are to be enshrined in the Constitution, as many groups now urge in the wake of the Roscommon abuse case, it will achieve little unless individuals learn to accept true responsibility for their actions.
