Murphy Report - At A Glance

The Report of the Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin was set up in 2006 to investigate how Church and state authorities handled allegations of child abuse against 46 priests over a period from 1975 to 2004.

• One priest admitted to sexually abusing over 100 children, while another accepted that he had abused on a fortnightly basis throughout his 25-year ministry.

• The Commission examined complaints in respect of over 320 children against 46 priests. Substantially more of the complaints relate to boys - the ratio is 2.3 boys to one girl.

• Of the 46 priests examined, 11 pleaded guilty to or were convicted in the criminal courts of sexual assaults on children.

• There was one clear case of a false accusation of child sexual abuse.

• The report found Dublin Archdiocese's pre-occupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets. All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities.

• All the Archbishops of Dublin in the period covered by the Commission were aware of some complaints.

• The Church authorities failed to implement most of their own canon law rules on dealing with clerical child sexual abuse. This was in spite of the fact that a number of them were qualified canon and civil lawyers.

• A mother who contacted the Archdiocese to report that her daughter had been abused as a child was told that the daughter would have to make the complaint. When the mother made it clear that the daughter was unlikely to be able to make such a complaint, she was not even asked for the name of the priest.

• A number of very senior members of the Irish police regarded priests as being outside their remit. There are some examples of them actually reporting complaints to the Archdiocese instead of investigating them.

• The Church did not start to report complaints of child sexual abuse to the Irish police until late 1995

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[Jerrymanda101]

Maybe Tim Minchin should have directed his wrath to those responsible for covering up the sex abuse instead of attacking Pope Benedict.

The report states: “The Church authorities failed to implement most of their own canon law rules on dealing with clerical child sexual abuse.”

This is why, in 2001, Pope Benedict (as Cardinal Ratzinger) was given some responsibility in dealing with child sex abuse - local Bishops had made such a cock-up that the Vatican had step in to fix the problem.

[PressAnyKey2Start]

@Jerrymanda101 Crimen Sollicitationis was enforced for 20 years by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became the Pope. It instructs bishops on how to deal with allegations of child abuse against priests and has been seen by few outsiders. Critics say the document has been used to evade prosecution for sex crimes. It imposes an oath of secrecy on the child victim, the priest dealing with the allegation and any witnesses. Breaking that oath means excommunication from the Catholic Church.

[Jerrymanda101]

@PressAnyKey2Start Murphy never said what you imply. The Murphy Report actually said:

"4.2.1 The main problem with these procedural rules [from Crimen Sollicitationis] was that virtually no one appears to have known anything about them – including the people who were supposed to implement them.

4.24 So, an unusual situation had existed whereby a document setting out the procedure for dealing with clerical child sexual abuse was in existence but virtually no one knew about it or used it."

[PressAnyKey2Start]

@Jerrymanda101 You must live in your own little bubble Jerry if you can take at face value anything any of the Irish bishops have said (even under oath) on this matter. These bishops (along with bishops worldwide) all acted similarly - they acted, not to protect children/victims but to protect the institution of the Church.

[sofos870]

this world would be free if no relegion would ever be created

[Jerrymanda101]

@PressAnyKey2Start If the the Dublin Bishops (as the Murphy Reports states) were unfamiliar with the document "Crimen Sollicitationis", than logically your allegation against Cardinal Ratzinger can't be true?

But more importantly you fail to see that had Crimen Sollicitationis been followed the problem of Clergy sex abuse would have been properly dealt with. The problem with the Dublin bishops wasn't that they followed Canon Law, it was that they didn't follow Canon Law.