Dublin archbishop sorrowed by clerical sexual abuse scandal

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Dublin archbishop sorrowedĀ by clerical sexual abuse scandal

Amid clerical sexual abuse scandals in Ireland, Chile, Australia, and the US, the Archbishop of Dublin lamented the scale of the problem, but said the Church in Ireland has greatly improved.

ā€œIn Ireland we have made extraordinary progress. We have mandatory reporting obligations and carry those out within a day as soon as we find a substantial allegation and we follow up on them,ā€ Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said Aug. 22 at the World Meeting of Families.

The Church in Ireland has been implicated in numerous historical scandals concerning the abuse of children and the mistreatment of unwed mothers and their children.

Pope Francis will be in Ireland Aug. 25-26, and is expected to meet with abuse victims while in the country.

Archbishop Martin said that ā€œ in Ireland because of the industrial schools, the day schools, the Magdalene laundries, the mother and baby homes, the children abused by priests in parishes, the numbers of those abused is immense and the numbers that have come forward is only proportionate of that and there are many people holding in their hearts the sadness of abuse.ā€

He said the Archdiocese of Dublin has ā€œdone a lotā€ for child protection, adding that that he had provided an investigatory commission ā€œ80,000 documents and the chairman said it was the most of substantive of contributions to that process.ā€

ā€œI believe the truth will make you free, even if itā€™s unpleasant, and itā€™s far better we work together,ā€ he stated, adding that ā€œWe have good relations of trust with the police and health authorities.ā€

ā€œThe factors that contribute and protect abusers have to be addressed definitively everywhere,ā€ Archbishop Martin said, according to a Catholic News Agency report.

He also suggested that the Irish judicial system could be changed to ā€œmake it easier for people in court,ā€ saying that ā€œthe number of prosecutions is also very low and because of the system in our courts, itā€™s not an easy thing for someone to appear and tell their story in court.ā€