Courtney McGrailDear Editor, I was reassured to read that both Archbishop Eamon Martin and Teresa Devlin, head of the Church’s child protection board, are adamant that abusive priests should remain barred from ministry (‘Offenders must not return to ministry – safeguarding head’ IC 20/20/2016).
Mrs Devlin’s comments were especially interesting given Mick Peelo’s claims elsewhere in the same issue of The Irish Catholic about how clerical abusers are treated in the Church today (‘Time to end zero tolerance?’).
Mr Peelo describes the Church’s treatment of a group of previously abusive clergy as a ‘zero tolerance’ approach that entails isolation, penalisation, and treating them as though they’re “the scum of the earth”. Criticising the Church’s approach as less Christian than it should be, the RTÉ journalist describes how one diocesan priest who had been guilty of abuse says he could be a better priest if he could return to ministry but instead is treated as a pariah.
Given this trenchant criticism, it is strange that your paper’s interview with Mr Peelo gives no suggestion that the RTÉ journalist spoke to Mrs Devlin or anyone else involved with the Church’s safeguarding board in the making of his Would You Believe? documentary ‘Beyond Redemption?’ Indeed, the programme itself was conspicuous for the absence of any comment from the board.
This seems especially peculiar in light of how the board this year introduced standards and guidelines for the care of clerics and religious who have been complained about or convicted of abuse. The failure to comment on this, or even acknowledge it, is most peculiar.
In any case, it seems bizarre that anybody who thinks barring a clerical abuser, however reformed, from ministry is tantamount to treating them as a pariah.
It’s a privilege to be allowed serve as a priest, not a right.
Yours etc.,
Bernadette Quigley,
Limerick, Co. Limerick.