(26 Nov 09 - RV)The long awaited Dublin Archdiocese Commission report into how allegations of child sex abuse by priests were handled by church and State authorities was published on Thursday by the Irish Minister for Justice and Minister of State for Children.
The commission was set up in March 2006 to investigate abuse allegations against 46 priests who were active in the archdiocese during the period from January 1975, to April 2004.
As well as detailing thousands of cases of abuse, the report addresses how allegations against the priests were dealt with by four archbishops who served as both chancellors and auxiliaries of the archdiocese over that three decade period.
This is the third inquiry in the last four years into child abuse by priests in Ireland, it comes on the heels of the Ryan report published earlier this year on abuse of children in religious run state industrial schools.
The Archdiocesen Commission expressed regret on Thursday that the report was not being published in full – Ireland’s High Court ruled that the report had to omit names and references to any cases that are currently on trial.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin took over from Cardinal Desmond Connell as head of the church in Dublin in April 2004. We asked him what message he had for all these sex abuse victims and their families: