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This report
was sent by the ad hoc executive of VOTF (Ulster) to the Vatican
Congregation for Bishops, prior to the 'Ad Limina' visit of all Irish
Catholic bishops to Rome, 16th-30th October 2006.
The report was signed by: Danny Duddy, Johnny McCallion,
Connolly McLaughlin, Martin McLaughlin, Jean Mullan, Sean O'Conaill,
Johnny White, Bernadette Wyer.
****
VOTF Ulster Report on the Catholic Diocese of Derry
'Voice of the Faithful' is an organisation of lay Catholics originating
in the USA in the aftermath of the most recent crisis over clerical
child sex abuse in Boston in 2002. Aiming to 'keep the faith and change
the church' our primary goals are to support victims of abuse, to
support priests of integrity (the majority) and to build structures in
the church which will allow the fruitful collaboration of priests and
people.
The signatories of this report are all also members of the Catholic
diocese of Derry, Ireland.
Respectfully we draw to the attention of the Holy Father and of the
Congregation for Bishops the steady decline of this diocese in the
period since 1994, and its present most serious condition. We know that
many other Irish dioceses have some of the problems outlined below, but
it is unlikely that any has all of them to the same degree. They pose a
most serious challenge to all Catholics in the diocese - a challenge we
need to meet together, in prayer, as a community of faith.
Falling Mass attendances and an apparent abandonment of interest in
sacramental practice by many young people are part of an Ireland-wide
pattern. So are the ageing and numeric decline of our clergy as
vocations to the ordained priesthood fall also. So is the demoralising
impact of a series of clerical child sex abuse scandals, which have
raised still-unanswered questions about the ineffectiveness of church
leadership to safeguard Catholic children - especially remembering the
Lord's adjuration to Peter: "Feed my Lambs."
However, the following matters give us particular cause for concern in
this diocese.
Events and Issues of Concern
in Derry
1 The 'Ministry and Change' Process
2 Clerical Sex Abuse and the 'Stewardship Trust'
3 Inadequate Provision for Adult Faith Development
4 Bishop Hegarty's treatment of the Derry 'Search'
Youth Ministry
5
Bishop Hegarty and 'Towards Healing'
6 The lack of a diocesan Pastoral Council and
Pastoral Plan
7
Contradictory statements made to media
Conclusion
****
1 The 'Ministry and Change' Process
Despite an express undertaking given by him in 2003 Bishop Seamus
Hegarty has failed to bring to fruition the diocese's most important
initiative for its revitalisation since his arrival in 1994: the
'Ministry and Change' consultation process with laity 1998-2003. His failure to
honour his own avowed commitment to move to an implementation phase in
this process, made to some of the signatories of this document in 2003,
has most seriously challenged our trust in the Episcopal system itself,
convincing many once well-disposed lay Catholics that there is no role
in their church for them and for their idealism.
To assist understanding of 'Ministry and Change' we append a list of the
hopes expressed for a revitalisation of the diocese in 1998 by lay
people meeting in one of its deaneries
(Appendix 1). Similar lists were
compiled in the other deaneries of the diocese, and provided the
optimistic framework for the 'Ministry and Change' process over the next
five years. We also attach the report presented to the bishop at the end
of the process in 2003
(Appendix 2), a report which he broadly
welcomed and promised to bring to an implementation phase. That promise
has yet to be honoured.
Perhaps the most successful achievement of the Ministry and Change team
during those years was the holding of a one-day diocesan conference on
Collaborative Ministry, attended by delegates from all over the diocese.
It is to us quite extraordinary and lamentable that, while many of the
lay participants expressed the hope that it would be the first of many
attempts to forward a fruitful collaboration between priests and people,
the bishop would subsequently remark to one of us that this conference
would be the last event of its kind in the diocese.
He has been as good as his word: no diocese-wide initiative, designed to
bring all of the people of the diocese into fruitful collaboration, has
ever been undertaken by him.
Dr Hegarty's failure to discharge his express undertaking to the
Ministry and Change team is especially important in light of the
adjuration of his holiness Pope John Paul II to Irish bishops in 1999 to
introduce "new structures and programmes that help to build a greater
sense of belonging to the ecclesial community". This is something
Bishop Hegarty has signally failed to do in any other way either.
(Top of Page)
2 Clerical
Sex Abuse and the 'Stewardship Trust'
Early in 2005 serious disquiet arose in the diocese regarding the
participation by a priest of the diocese in a counselling service for
victims of sexual abuse, a service listed in the Derry diocesan
directory and described as diocesan outreach to victims. On January 23rd
2005, this priest had publicly admitted having made a sexual advance to
a young man over a decade earlier. In a BBC television interview on 22nd
February 2005
(Appendix 3) Bishop Hegarty
admitted that he had known of a second serious allegation against the
same priest by 1999, but insisted that he had handled the matter
responsibly in allowing this priest to continue in parish ministry and
to work as a spiritual director to members of the Catholic youth group
'Search'.
In the same interview Bishop Hegarty argued that the decision to appoint
this priest to a counselling role was a matter for the directors of the
counselling service ('Hope Alive', now 'Nest'), in whose judgement he
expressed complete confidence. However, these directors have never since
publicly explained their decision.
Appendix 3
reveals also that by February 2005 Bishop Hegarty had diverted 3% of
parish collections in the financial year 2003-2004 to the support of the
Stewardship Trust Fund without informing the people of the diocese,
despite a prior undertaking to the priests of the diocese that he would
first inform the whole diocese of his intention to do this.
This quite sensational revelation alerted most of the Catholic people of
this island for the first time to the existence of this fund. It took
very little time to discover that the fund had been created originally
in 1996 as a consequence of a failure of insurance cover against
liability for damages caused by clerical child sexual abuse in the
period up to 1994.
Needless to say, this history of the Stewardship Trust Fund has never
been fully disclosed by Bishop Hegarty to the people of Derry. His
failure to honour his undertaking to the priests of the diocese to
inform the people of his diocese of his intention to divert some of
their parish contributions to this fund has therefore also seriously
undermined the trust that the office of bishop requires to operate
effectively. Our priests subsequently met - without Bishop Hegarty - and
decided that the money already sent to the fund should be returned to
the parishes.
(Top of Page)
3
Inadequate Provision for Adult Faith Development
The failure to invest in adult faith development is another most serious
shortfall in the diocese. It is common knowledge that since Bishop
Hegarty's transfer here, very large sums have been invested in what
might be called the material infrastructure of the diocese - especially
the replacing and refurbishing of clerical residences in parishes.
No open accounts of this financial emphasis have been provided by the
diocese - but informal inter-parish communication and simple arithmetic
strongly point towards expenditure running into many millions sterling
for this purpose.
Yet we also have the situation where the only adult faith development
course in the diocese is currently offered to lay people at a cost of
£120 per head!
(Top of Page)
4 Bishop Hegarty's treatment of the Derry 'Search' Youth Ministry
'Search' is a youth version of 'Cursillo'. The Derry City 'Search'
ministry began in 1985. Since then approximately 4,000 young people have
experienced the 'Search' evangelical weekend, and many have maintained
membership of the 'Search' community for an extended period afterwards.
When 'Search' began, the violence of Northern
Ireland's political situation was still a serious threat to young people
living in the most deprived areas of the city. Unemployment and the
instability of family life left the poorest young people very
vulnerable. Derry 'Search' undoubtedly saved many young people from
lives of crime, addiction, and political violence. Its success was noted
by Catholic adults elsewhere in Ireland, and other 'Search' communities
sprouted from it - e.g. in Dungiven in the Derry diocese, in Letterkenny
and Sligo in neighbouring dioceses, and even in Glasgow, Scotland.
At present 'Search' in Derry occupies the leisure time of twenty adults.
Up to sixty young people meet every Sunday evening for prayer,
reflection and training for further evangelical weekends.
In 2004, seeking Bishop Hegarty's support for a bid for improved
premises for 'Search' in Derry, fifty young 'Search' members wrote to
the bishop, explaining what they personally had received from 'Search'
by way of inspiration, understanding and spiritual growth. A reply was
immediately forthcoming from the bishop's secretary - to the effect that
the bishop was on holiday but would respond when he returned.
To date, not one of those fifty young people has received this promised
reply.
'Search' in the city of Derry continues in being but is obliged to be
entirely self-supporting: it receives no financial support from the
diocese.
In light of the serious problem of widespread discontinuation of
sacramental practice by young people, and the growing reluctance of many
adult lay people to become involved in youth ministry, Bishop Hegarty's
treatment of Derry 'Search' and its young members is to us inexplicable.
(Top of Page)
5 Bishop Hegarty and
'Towards Healing'
In February 2005 the Conference of Irish Bishops published the very
important document
'Towards Healing'. Seeking to stem the flood of adverse
publicity over the issue of clerical child sex abuse in Ireland it
pointed out, correctly, that the huge majority of those who sexually
abuse children in Ireland are not clergy or religious.
Even more important, in the following paragraphs it clearly challenged
'the whole church community' to respond together to this far wider
challenge:
"It is a duty on all of us to help people who have suffered abuse to see
the face of Jesus in the life of the Christian community. That means
that we all need to learn more about the anguish and harm that child
abuse causes and about the need for healing in so many lives. We need to
make our communities ones in which the journey towards peace and
wholeness can be made..."
"There are many resources in the community of the Church - spiritual
direction, counselling, educational skill, financial know-how, medical
and psychiatric expertise, artistic talent - the list could go on. To
people with these skills - and with many others - we say, 'Would you
consider putting these at the service of the journey towards the many
dimensions of healing that are needed to address the great harm done to
those who have suffered child abuse?'"
"It would be a practical and realistic step towards healing if each
diocese could call on a pool of people who would be willing to help
someone along the road towards putting their life together and, perhaps,
towards finding their way back to the Church and to our loving God."
Greatly welcoming this document, and this challenge, the Irish
co-ordinator of our organisation, 'Voice of the Faithful' wrote to the
Irish Catholic Communications Office in 2005, asking if it was the
intention behind the document that every bishop would, in his own
diocese, seek to lead his people in a 'whole church' response to this
challenge. The response was an emphatic 'Yes'.
Yet to date, twenty months later, Bishop Hegarty has made no publicly
recorded mention of this document in his diocese. He has issued no
challenge along these lines to his people, e.g. in the form of a
pastoral letter. If he has endorsed this challenge in his meeting with
his priests, their failure to respond in any way is startling. Convinced
of the integrity of the great majority of them we are satisfied that
Bishop Hegarty has in fact not recommended it to them either.
We can make this charge with considerable confidence, because in
February of this year we wrote to Bishop Hegarty adverting to 'Towards
Healing'
(Appendix 4). Pointing out the challenge issued in the above paragraphs,
we explained the goals of our own organisation, and offered to meet with
him to discuss these.
Hoping even at this late stage for a new beginning in the diocese, four
of us met with Bishop Hegarty on March 10th this year. We expressed the
hope that, as a beginning, healing services focused specifically on the
abuse issue could be held in the diocese. Although the bishop was not in
the least encouraging in his attitude towards our particular mission and
role (other than our declared desire to pray for victims), we did at
least derive some comfort from his undertaking to put the proposal for
healing services to a forthcoming conference of priests.
To date, few such services have been held subsequent to that
undertaking.
More significantly, there has still not been any public reference made
to 'Towards Healing' by the bishop.
Feeling very strongly that an expressed challenge to 'the whole church
community' to respond to the plight of those who have suffered abuse in
Ireland is precisely what the situation demands, we are totally at a
loss to account for Bishop Hegarty's complete silence and inaction in
relation to it.
As far as we are aware, Irish bishops generally have made no attempt to
undertake a survey of victims of clerical sexual abuse and their
families - to determine the extent of their recovery and of their
alienation from, or reconciliation with, the church into which they were
baptised. Bishop Hegarty's attitude to 'Towards Healing' in Derry
suggests a lack of concern over these issues.
(Top of Page)
6
The lack of a diocesan Pastoral Council and Pastoral Plan
One other aspect of our meeting with Bishop Hegarty in March is of great
importance. We asked him if, in light of the needs of the diocese, he
did not think there should be a diocesan pastoral council. To our great
surprise, he insisted that the diocese did indeed already have a
pastoral council - because he had established one on taking over
leadership of the diocese in 1994.
Not ever having heard of it, and unable to find any mention of it in the
diocesan directory, we subsequently wrote to the bishop seeking further
details on this diocesan pastoral council and its work,
(Appendix 5). He
responded, informing us that there was in fact no diocesan pastoral
council, and adverting instead to the existence of a diocesan finance
council (Appendix 6).
We respectfully draw your attention to the fact that not only has the
diocese no pastoral council after twelve years of Bishop Hegarty's
ministry, but that the bishop evidently did not know this as late as
March 2006. As a diocesan pastoral council is recommended by Canon Law,
and as the diocese is in dire need of pastoral planning and a
responsible role for qualified lay people in that process, Bishop
Hegarty's lack of knowledge and interest in this matter is quite
astonishing.
This failure is again especially important in light of the adjuration
given by His Holiness Pope John Paul II to all Irish bishops in 1999 -
to create structures that would give Irish lay people a sense of
belonging to their own church.
Had Bishop Hegarty his own clear programme for the development of the
diocese we would in no way be disposed to be critical. However, in
response to our reference to Pope John Paul II's call to Irish bishops
to experiment with new structures Bishop Hegarty replied to us as
follows in April of this year: (Appendix 6):
Throughout the Diocese, at the level of parish, there are various
programmes and novel structures which help create that sense of
belonging to which Pope John Paul II referred, aimed at deepening prayer
and strengthening faith. In the years since the Second Vatican Council
this Diocese has seen many developments, amongst which must be listed
the dramatic development of prayer groups, consciousness of scripture
and a greater awareness of solidarity with. those who suffer throughout
the world. I am sure that, you would join with me in welcoming these and
other such developments.
The complete lack of specific or concrete information in this paragraph
is immediately striking. What exactly is he referring to? Could not at
least one example be given, if the bishop had concrete knowledge of even
one parish in which even one of these 'programmes and novel structures'
exist? What conclusion can be drawn from the fact that there is no
quantitative data either - other than the obvious one that the bishop
has never thought to conduct an audit of such provision in his diocese,
to determine its overall vitality and to address its needs?
More striking still, the bishop is clearly unable in this letter to
point to even one initiative that he himself has personally taken to
respond to the pope's call since it was made in 1999, or to ascertain
the view of his own people on how they might be given that sense of
belonging to which the pope referred.
(Top of Page)
7 Contradictory
Statements made to Media
Appendix 3, the transcript of the BBC TV interview with Bishop Hegarty
in February 2005, seen by viewers of all ages and religious traditions
in Ireland, includes the following exchange. In all cases, 'Q' indicates
the interviewer's question and 'R' indicates Bishop Hegarty's answer:
Q. "Can I ask you about the Stewardship Trust Fund and the undertaking
that the Derry Diocese has taken in terms of what it will contribute"
R. "Er ... Yes."
Q. "What is the undertaking you have made?"
R. "Well, the Stewardship Trust, as many know, was set up in 1996. (It)
began with an initial injection of funding from the insurance company.
What the Derry diocese is doing... Yes... we have a commitment to
expenses of the conference generally. Now in more recent times we've
found that because of the expenses arising from issues relating to sex
abuse and our managing of that, we were forced to provide another source
of funding, because what we were paying in the normal way was not
adequate to meet those expenses."
Q. "But the Derry diocese is making a contribution towards the fund
which looks after compensation for victims of sex abuse."
R. "Well compensation is one, is one..."
Q. "But it is an element of it?"
R. "Yes - it's an element of it surely, and the diocese is making a
contribution."
Q. "How much of a contribution are you making?"
R. "It will be a significant contribution, depending on the size of the
diocese."
Q. "What is your contribution?"
R. "My contribution is very significant."
Q. "£200,000 a year? £1,000,000 over five years? Is that right?
R. "Well, that wouldn't be too far off the mark."
Q. "How are you managing to raise that money?"
R. "I am raising that money in the diocese."
Q. "Is there a levy on what parishes raise over the year?"
R. "Well, money has to be collected in a particular way - and a levy is
as good a way as any."
Q. "Are you taking 3% from parish incomes towards that fund?"
R. "Yes."
Q. "Do parishioners know that?"
R. "Well they... some of them, do, and others ... they'll all know it
before very long."
Q. "Did you make an undertaking to write to parishioners?"
R. "Yes, I did ... and I will do that."
Q. "But you have been taking the money up to this point ..."
R. "No, listen ... ah ... I have not been taking any money at all! I
have not been taking any money at all! There was one ... we just began
that very recently. This is now .. this is a very new initiative. There
has been one payment, and some parishes have ... have decided that they
will not run with it until such time as it is an official, you know,
notification from the diocesan office.
Q. "Do you not think that you should have written to parishioners as
agreed, to tell them as agreed, before the money was taken."
R. "No I do not. I do not think that at all. I have no difficulty at
all, and the people will be told in due course, and they will be very
happy with that."
(Top of Page)
Conclusion
We do not underestimate the task of leading any diocese in Ireland in
the present climate of ecclesiastical scandal, rampant secularism and
widespread disillusionment. Yet we are also convinced that our faith is
centred on the most beautiful and loving truth - a truth that Derry,
Ireland and the whole western world will always need. And we are certain
also that all of the talents necessary for a revival of church and faith
are already present in this diocese and lack only a wise and
compassionate leader to recognise and harness them.
Such a leader will be strong in faith and love, and will set out to know
his diocese intimately. He will understand that the authority of his
office depends heavily upon the level of personal trust and respect he
can inspire, and will therefore deal with everyone - priests and people
- with strict integrity. He will also respond with energy to the obvious
need addressed by Pope John Paul II in 1999 - to establish structures
which will give all of us a real sense of belonging to our own church.
These structures will also, in harmony with Lumen Gentium, allow us to
state our pastoral needs and organise ourselves to meet these.
We believe that this diocese deserves such a bishop, but has not had
such a bishop since 1994, and does not have such a bishop at present. We
ask you to set this right before the legacy of hope, trust
and respect that this bishop inherited has been entirely squandered.
Finally we would point out that the need for this document would
probably not have arisen if permanent formal structures existed in all
Irish dioceses for the expression by the faithful of their pastoral
needs and concerns - as was projected by Lumen Gentium
over forty years ago. It is the continued inexplicable absence of such
structures that has allowed Bishop Hegarty to behave as he has for so
long. This structural dysfunction must also end immediately
if we are to see a vibrant Catholic Church again in Ireland.
(Top of Page)
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VOTF™
Mission Statement
To provide a prayerful voice, attentive to the Spirit,
through which the Faithful can actively participate in the governance
and guidance of the Catholic Church.
Our Goals
1. To support
survivors of clergy sexual abuse.
2. To support priests of integrity
3.To shape structural change within the Catholic Church.
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