Others turned a blind eye, too
Tuesday December 08 2009
THE heat is being turned up on the Catholic Church big time. We have all sorts of suggestions, from boycotting to calling the Pope to order.
The behaviour of the Church is, of course, inexcusable in relation to the handling of child sex abuse.
However, if Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin wants the Pope to give an account of himself he should at least be consistent and ask every other group in Irish society that was aware of child sex abuse and did very little about it to account for themselves.
Much of the abuse was within families.
Mr Martin should look no further than the Department of Health, for which he was responsible at one time.
Social workers were aware of child sex abuse cases during his period as minister, as were many other professionals, and, more often than not, no real action was taken to protect the young person being abused.
Individuals at the highest levels in the Department of Health must have been aware that a blind eye was being turned to cases of abuse.
Why is there not a clamour for accountability in the Department of Health, including what past ministers did or did not do?
I would suggest that this would bring far greater benefit to Irish society than having a pot shot at the Pope.
John O'Donovan
Glasnevin, Dublin 9
Irish Independent
