MOJ Friend Gerry Whyte reports from Ireland

Here is what Gerry (Trinity College Dublin, Law) has to say:

MOJers may be interested in a speech delivered by Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin last night in which he said, inter alia, that he was 'disheartened and discouraged about the [low] level of willingness [within the Church] to really begin what is going to be a painful path of renewal and of what is involved in that renewal'.

He also said,"There are still strong forces which would prefer that the truth did not emerge.  The truth will make us free, even when that truth is uncomfortable.  There are signs of subconscious denial on the part of many about the extent of the abuse which occurred within the Church of Jesus Christ in Ireland and how it was covered up.  There are other signs of rejection of a sense of responsibility for what had happened.  There are worrying signs that despite solid regulations and norms these are not being followed with the rigour required....

.....There are those who claim that the media strategy of the Church in the Archdiocese of Dublin following the publication of the Murphy Report was “catastrophic”.  My answer is that what the Murphy report narrated was catastrophic and that the only honest reaction of the Church was to publicly admit that the manner in which that catastrophe was addressed was spectacularly wrong; spectacularly wrong  “full stop”; not spectacularly wrong, “but…”   You cannot sound-byte your way out of a catastrophe."

The full text is available here.