Courtney McGrailDear Editor, In your November 26 edition the question is asked, is there evidence that Irish people “punch above their weight” in paedophilia? There is no such evidence.
But the impression has been successfully given that paedophilia is a specially Irish or Catholic or clerical problem. It is not.
Catholics are partly to blame that such an impression has been created about the Church. The Church has been determined to identify real or possible offenders among its clergy and religious, but not so determined to protect the innocent ones who never offended at all. A Church with centuries of experience of people believing wrong things about it has a habit of waiting until each storm blows over through either time or divine grace. But in the meanwhile many innocents suffer from a carefully – or carelessly – nurtured suspicion. And they wonder why the good they have done is not only forgotten but derided.
The innocent workers of the Church have not been adequately or courageously defended and therein lies one root of a distressing problem.
Neither has the Irish nation.
The John Jay Report commissioned by the Catholic hierarchy in the USA is a useful starting point from which to study the realities of different aspects of this distressing problem.
Yours etc.,
Des Wilson,
Belfast,