Voice of the Faithful - Ireland - Record of Activities since 2004

The origins of VOTF in Ireland lie in a visit paid to VOTF HQ in Boston in 2004 by Sean O'Conaill, who had written an article on the US origins of VOTF in the Irish church monthly Reality in 2003. He was asked on that visit to see if he could try to link together those Ireland-based people who had signed on to the VOTF website since its foundation in 2002.

By 2010 VOTFI had grown to approximately 180 members - the most active of whom were linked by Internet and dispersed over the island (with one or two in GB). We included survivors of clerical abuse from seven different Irish dioceses: Cloyne, Derry, Down and Connor, Dublin, Ferns, Kilmore and Raphoe.

To begin with we were numerically strongest in Derry diocese, whose bishop, Dr Seamus Hegarty became the focus of a BBC Spotlight programme in early 2005. The programme focused first on his handling of allegations of sexual abuse against a priest, Andrew McCloskey, who had inexplicably been appointed (despite these known allegations), to a church-sponsored role in actually counselling victims of abuse!

Having failed to explain this, Bishop Hegarty was then confronted with the fact that he had imposed an additional 3% levy on parish collections in the diocese without consulting or informing parishioners - as he had promised his priests he would do in November 2004. This was to allow the diocese to make a contribution to the Bishops' 'Stewardship Trust' - an all-island fund they had set up in1996 to compensate victims of clerical sex abuse.

This revelation caused a storm in the diocese, leading to a meeting of priests that voted to return the money. Bishop Hegarty apologised, assuring his people that they had a right to know where their money went. (Nevertheless, he was later to re-impose the 3% levy in 2009, again without explanation or forewarning.)

Continuing media curiosity about the Stewardship Trust led in May 2005 to a query to VOTFI about our position on continuing lack of information on contributions to the Stewardship Trust from the Derry diocese. As a consequence we issued our first statement to the media in May 2005.

We followed this by taking an all-Ireland position on contributions to the Stewardship Trust, saying it was compromised by lack of transparency - and that lay people should reflect on this before contributing.

Subsequently the Stewardship Trust disappeared from the audible agenda of Irish bishops. It had acquired too high a profile. We understand that about this time a decision was taken by Irish bishops that the question of compensation for clerical child abuse would be dealt with by dioceses individually. How they do so remains obscure. The right of Catholics to know how their money is spent is not generally observed by Irish bishops.

In 2002 the Irish government had set up an inquiry into the handling of clerical child sex abuse in the diocese of Ferns, Wexford. This decision had followed a sensational BBC TV documentary, Suing the Pope, in which Colm O'Gorman had related his experiences of abuse by Sean Fortune, a priest of the diocese. Facing prosecution, Fortune had committed suicide in 2000. In the media furore that followed 'Suing the Pope' the bishop of Ferns, Brendan Comiskey, had resigned.

The Ferns Report was the first Irish state report on child sexual abuse in any Irish diocese. It found that successive bishops of Ferns had 'placed the interest of the church ahead of children'. We responded by calling for changes to an obviously defective and dangerous church system.

Tom Doyle is a Dominican priest who has taken a strong line against the mishandling of clerical child sex abuse by bishops since he first encountered this close up in 1984 in Louisiana, USA. He subsequently helped edit a thorough report on the possible consequences of the problem for the church. It warned that unless dealt with correctly, this abuse could be devastating in both spiritual and financial terms. He was correct on both counts - but his persistence met denial among US bishops and led to the loss of his career in the church's diplomatic service. He then became a chaplain to US forces, but lost that career in 2002 when he spoke out in the furore that followed the revelations of the cover up of abuse by Bernard Cardinal Law, Archbishop of Boston.

Very supportive of VOTF in the US, he agreed to speak to VOTF members in Dublin and Derry in November 2005. He brought a refreshing honesty and courage that continues to inspire us, and he remains in close touch with all that goes on here. If anyone wonders what we mean when we speak of 'priests of integrity', just Google 'Tom Doyle'.

Baffled by continuing failures of leadership in Derry diocese, VOTF members there learned in 2006 that in October of that year there was to be an Ad Limina meeting of all Irish bishops with Pope Benedict XVI. Feeling strongly that their misgivings needed to be communicated to the leadership of the church they prepared a comprehensive report on a series of broken promises by the bishop. Also, unaccountably, he had failed to respond to the personal letters of some young Catholics in Derry who had written asking for his support for their evangelical Search mission. Most seriously he had failed to explain the matters revealed by the BBC Spotlight programme of 2005. Click this link for the full report.

We also held an open meeting in Derry to explain why we had taken this action. This unprecedented occasion was a stormy one, but events since then have fully vindicated this action, and the factual veracity of the report has never been challenged. The fact that it was never acknowledged by the Vatican Congregation for Bishops (to which it had been sent) revealed clearly to all of us that the governmental problems of the church did not stop in Derry. We were learning the lesson that all Irish Catholics have now learnt - that the injunction in Psalm 146 "Put not your trust in princes" applies even to princes at the centre of the Church. (After all, one of these in 2006 was Bernard Cardinal Law, the discredited former archbishop of Boston, who was then a member of the same Vatican Congregation for Bishops!)

By this time the VOTFI online forum had reached some strong conclusions on the root causes of the clerical child abuse catastrophe. In particular we were convinced that a dominant factor is the phenomenon known as clericalism. This is a distortion of Catholicism that attributes a kind of automatic sanctity and superiority to clergy by virtue of the sacrament of ordination. It tempts a minority of priests to exploit the power this gives - and this clericalist assumption of power can then be used to compel children and young adults to submit unquestioningly to the sexual advances of clerical predators, causing enormous harm. Tragically, many victims are then unable to divulge what has happened because they feel sure they will not be believed, even by their parents.

Clericalism was also a key factor of the cover-up of abuse by bishops. Convinced that the aura of clerical sanctity had at all costs to be maintained they had protected clerical abusers and endangered other children.

Lay clericalism had also been a factor in the deference shown by too many public servants - including Gardai - to clergy suspected of abuse. This too had been revealed in the Ferns report.

Believing that this analysis might help the Dublin Commission to understand what had gone wrong in Dublin also, we summarised our conclusions and submitted them in a brief statement in March 2007.

In January 2007 the NI assembly initiated a consultation process on the wider issue of sexual violence, and asked for submissions from concerned organisations. We did not hear of this until April 2007, but nevertheless made a strong submission. This called for the NI government to encourage the churches to develop a conversation among their adherents on this wider issue, as promised but not fulfilled by the document 'Towards Healing', published by the Irish Catholic bishops in February 2005.

We also called for an NI inquiry into the issue of sexual abuse by clergy, something that by November 2009 seemed likely to happen.

The National Conference of Priests of Ireland was until September 2007 the closest thing the Irish Catholic Church had to a body that could claim to represent all Irish priests, including diocesan priests as well as priests belonging to religious orders. Sadly, it dissolved itself at that point. The immediate cause of this was the inability of the body to nominate a successor to the outgoing president of the NCPI, Fr John Littleton. However, the underlying cause was undoubtedly the deteriorating morale of Irish clergy, itself another symptom of the deep crisis of continuity that still besets the Irish church.

We were unaware of the impending demise of the NCPI when we met with members of its executive in July 2007. Marie Collins, Teresa Mee and Sean O'Conaill presented a position paper on the current crisis in the Irish Catholic church, analysing the basic problem as one of clericalism - the tendency on the part of too many lay people as well as clergy to think of the ordained priest as solely responsible for the leadership and development of the church. We referred to the long standing proposal by the NCPI of a national assembly of the Irish church - a proposal that the Irish Conference of Bishops had never addressed. We suggested that VOTFI and the NCPI and other church organisations should look to some form of collaboration to bring about some such initiative. We stressed the importance of priests and people setting out to discover together how to implement the programme laid down for the laity by Vatican II - 'to consecrate the world to God'.

We were given a respectful hearing - although the weight of opinion on the NCPI executive seemed to lean towards the opinion that lay clericalism was an even bigger barrier to progress than the clericalism of priests. We looked forward to ongoing contact with the NCPI - and were therefore stunned to hear of its self-dissolution the following September. So far it has not been replaced.

However, the programme we outlined remains part of our own evolution, and must surely again become relevant as soon as the current deep crisis of the Irish church has found a leadership capable of addressing it. We recommend this document as a basis for future development.

In the autumn of 2007 Cardinal Sean Brady spoke in Cork of his desire to address the issue of clerical sexual abuse. Taking him seriously, we wrote to him detailing the questions we believed needed to be addressed. For example, why two bishops in Ferns had 'placed the church before children'. Had those children not also belonged to the church? What precise definition of church had these bishops been using that allowed them to behave in this way? And why were bishops not accountable for this behaviour within the church? Why was secrecy such an embedded and dangerous quantity in the culture of the church? Didn't cardinals like himself take an oath of secrecy at their installation? And finally, what action did the bishops of the church propose to take to heal the harm that had been done?

Not hearing anything from Cardinal Brady for some weeks, we decided then to redraft this letter and to release it as an open letter to the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference. An advance copy was already on its way to the ICBC when we received in February 2008 a letter from Cardinal Brady, offering to meet with us to discuss our letter to himself. We decided to accept this offer, but also to proceed with the publication of the open letter to the ICBC

We first got to know Martin Ridge in October 2005 when he attended the meeting addressed by Fr Tom Doyle in the Tower Hotel in Derry. He made a very strong contribution at that meeting, and became a valued member of VOTF Ireland. As a serving Garda officer in Donegal he had investigated the serial paedophile Eugene Greene, who was convicted as a consequence in 2000 and sentenced to twelve years imprisonment.

On the basis of the evidence he had uncovered, Martin Ridge had become convinced that Greene's activities must have been known to other clergy in Raphoe diocese at least as early as 1976. Now retired he accepted a commission to co-author a book on the investigation of Eugene Greene, and of another Donegal paedophile, school teacher Dennis McGinley. Published by Gill and Macmillan, the book 'Breaking the Silence' was launched by Mary Raftery on 4th April 2008 in Letterkenny*.

A meticulous and detailed account of the gradual accumulation of damning evidence against two highly dangerous men, Breaking the Silence made a convincing case for an inquiry into the mysterious career of Eugene Greene especially. For example, it was known that in 1976 he had received treatment somewhere as a consequence of a complaint of child sexual abuse by one family. He had told the family of this treatment at the time - and it seems inconceivable that this could have happened without the diocesan authorities being aware of it. And although Greene's alcoholism was pleaded in extenuation of his abusive behaviour by his defence counsel at his trial, no medical record was produced to substantiate this submission.

'Breaking the Silence' made a compelling case for a state inquiry into the handling of abuse by Raphoe diocese, to follow inquiries into the dioceses of Ferns and Dublin. This cause is still very much alive - although the silence of Donegal politicians is very difficult to understand.

*Breaking the Silence, Martin Ridge and Gerard Cunningham, Gill and Macmillan, 2008

A team of four was selected to meet with the Cardinal by the online group that had formulated the letters to Cardinal Brady and the ICBC (see 'Twelve Questions' etc above). Carol Brady, Margaret Kennedy, Bryan Maguire and Sean O'Conaill were accompanied by Irene O'Byrne-Maguire as recorder. Cardinal Brady was accompanied by Bishop Eamonn Walsh from Dublin, Fr Timothy Bartlett and two lay people involved in dealing with cases of sexual abuse - Ms Aileen Oates and Sister Loretto McKeown. The meeting took place in the Carrickdale Hotel, near Dundalk.

The atmosphere of the meeting was cordial but intense. After brief personal introductions we focused upon the questions put in our open letter to the ICBC (above), emphasising the need for openness, honesty and repentance on the part of the hierarchy for the way in which they had handled the issue, and calling strongly for church structures for open discussion and for downward accountability. We also called strongly for a forum for survivors, to allow all bishops to learn of the suffering involved in clerical abuse.

The cardinal and his team were defensive and non-committal as to their own future course of action. Bryan Maguire remarked later that their attitude could be summed up by the expression: "You've got to listen to thunder!" That is, the Cardinal gave no sign then of wishing to follow up anything we had said. It was as though he thought his duty had been fully done by simply being physically present as we spoke.

Astonishingly, when asked about the oath of secrecy that he had been obliged to take on being installed, Cardinal Brady told us that he had never connected that oath with the issue of the handling of clerical sexual abuse.

The key issue of accountability was fended off by reference to the recently instituted National Board for the Safeguarding of Children (a church sponsored organisation to establish and monitor child protection guidelines). We were assured that the CEO of the NBSC, Ian Elliott, would make sure that all bishops were accountable for following child safety guidelines. We were simply not heard on our submission that the restoration of trust in the church would require bishops to be accountable to their people as well - and not just on the issue of clerical sexual abuse.

Although we subsequently thanked the Cardinal for the meeting and summarised what we hoped would follow from it, we received from him no follow-up message of any kind. This was on balance another disillusioning and disappointing experience. It left us with the clear impression that the Primate of Ireland would not be a dynamic force for the resolution of all the issues raised by the clerical abuse catastrophe. Despite his declared intention of October 2007 to address the problem, we concluded that he too was essentially into damage limitation rather than resolution.

From April 2008 there were persistent media reports of trouble in the southern diocese of Cloyne, whose bishop, Dr John Magee, had allegedly mishandled clerical child sex abuse allegations there. A report on this compiled by the CEO of the NBSC, Ian Elliott, had reportedly gone to the Minister for Children, Barry Andrews - but then disappeared. Public pressure for its publication increased in late 2008 - and the report finally appeared just before Christmas. It delivered virtually the same verdict on Bishop Magee's performance in Cloyne as had the Ferns report on failing bishops of that diocese - the interests and safety of children had come second to the interests of clergy, and the church's own child safety guidelines had not been followed.

We immediately issued a statement calling for Dr Magee's resignation, and for a papal investigation and explanation of the dangerous behaviour of so many bishops

A few days later Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin made an important intervention - saying he was extremely concerned by the Cloyne report. The possibly wide divergence it proved between how different bishops were applying church guidelines was a particular problem for Dublin, because priests from any diocese could potentially minister in the archdiocese. He warned that he might be obliged to impose a uniform system for all priests serving in the diocese.

We saw this as an important development, a change in the usually uniform response from all Irish bishops to every question. Archbishop Martin would not himself be drawn on the question of whether Bishop Magee should resign, but this position was clearly different from the support given to Bishop Magee by other bishops. A new crisis developed on Jan 13th 2009 when Archbishop Sean Brady declared that Bishop Magee, whom he had always found to be 'dependable and reliable', should stay in office.

At that moment an article by Sean O'Conaill on the issue of bishop accountability was ready for publication by the Irish News, Belfast. It was quickly edited to refer to Archbishop Brady's lamentable decision and published on January 15th: "Our unaccountable bishops undermine trust in Church".

Meanwhile another issue had surfaced, the effectiveness of the Irish state's monitoring of child protection procedures and structures in all Irish dioceses. It transpired on January 7th 2009 that a HSE 'audit' of these that had been carried out in 2008 was based upon a questionnaire, some parts of which most dioceses had failed to fill in! We immediately protested.

The disappointing outcome of our meeting with Cardinal Sean Brady in April 2008 had been communicated to all members in an ensuing report. The production team for the RTE 'Would You Believe' series, led by Mick Peelo, had come to hear of it also, and the result was a documentary programme entitled 'Soul Murder', produced in the second half of 2008 and televised on 22nd February 2009.

The programme focused upon a key issue - what exactly had led to the cover up of the abuse problem by bishops, a cover up that had in turn produced further victims?

The programme included footage of a meeting of VOTF members in Dublin - at which the failure of the April meeting with the cardinal was discussed. However, the main focus was deservedly on two survivor members of VOTFI - Marie Collins and Fr Paddy McCafferty. Each calmly recounted their experiences with the governing structures of the church - experiences mainly of coldness and evasion, which constituted additional abuse. They also explained why they had sought nevertheless to engage with the clerical institution of the church, in the hope that it could come to understand its own dysfunction. Despite what has happened to them they have retained a core of deep Christian faith and a belief that their own experiences could somehow be understood by the institution, helping it to develop. Up to that point their perseverance had reaped no visible harvest, as there was a deep trend towards denial and aloofness on the part of the Irish hierarchy.

The programme finished with an interview with Tom Doyle. Asked why the clerical institution always failed the test of responding adequately to survivors, he argued that the reason was the medieval monarchical structure of the Catholic hierarchy.

We had been greatly impressed with the determination shown by Ian Elliott in 2008 to make sure that his report on the diocese of Cloyne would be published. And with the forthrightness of the report, which led eventually to the standing down of Bishop John Magee, and to the referral of Cloyne to the Irish State commission of inquiry into the Dublin archdiocese. Referred to the NBSC by Cardinal Brady's team at the Carrickdale meeting in April 2008, we had delayed approaching Elliott for a meeting during the Cloyne controversy as we were not sure then that we could place any reliance upon the NBSC, a church-sponsored body, to impose any kind of accountability upon Catholic bishops. The eventual stepping down of Bishop John Magee had given us some reassurance on this point.

On February 24th 2009, the NBSC published its first report, together with new child safeguarding guidelines for all dioceses. The report stressed the need to develop a 'culture of accountability' in the church - a key issue for VOTFI - and it also emphasised the role of the NBSC in the tasks of healing and reconciliation. Anxious to hear further from Ian Elliott on this, and concerned also to clarify issues arising from the safeguarding guidelines, we requested a meeting with him. We also began preparing a detailed list of questions so that whatever time he gave us would be utilised to the full.

In addition we prepared a formal letter to Ian Elliott recounting our abortive meeting with Cardinal Brady at the Carrickdale in April 2008, and the failure of the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference to respond to our open letter of February 2008. Concerned especially about the bishops' patent lack of concern for healing and reconciliation we asked Ian Elliott in this formal letter where he thought the initiative on this issue should come from. We carried this letter with us to the meeting with the NBSC that followed.

On May 13th, 2009 VOTFI members Fr Paddy McCafferty and Sean O'Conaill met with Ian Elliott and Sister Collette Stevenson in Maynooth.

In response to the formal letter left with him relating to the issue of healing and reconciliation, Ian Elliott replied later that both ‘reaching out’ and a ‘culture of accountability’ were two arms of a strategy necessary to deal with these issues. However, he said that the question as to who should take the initiative in progressing them lay beyond his remit.

While VOTFI agrees that a culture of accountability will indeed be an essential part of the healing and reconciliation process, the lack of clarity on who is to take the initiative on healing and reconciliation left us bewildered. We had been referred to the NBSC by Cardinal Sean Brady and Bishop Eamonn Walsh in May 2008 when we had raised both the issue of accountability in the church and the issue of healing and reconciliation. At the end of this exchange with the NBSC it was difficult to avoid the conclusion that in fact the Irish Catholic Church had no agency charged with taking the initiative on these matters.