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Guilty until proven Innocent
Sarah Mac Donald writing in this week’s Tablet describes the awful ordeal of Fr Tim Hazelwood who had an anonymous false allegation made against him and who then was left to prove his own innocence while feeling totally abandoned by official church and fobbed off by the National Safeguarding Board.
“I was left feeling very alone”, he says. “I had to fight my accuser but I also had to fight the Church, because it didn’t help in any way.”
This article raises very disturbing questions for church authorities in how they deal with anonymous allegations, questions that should prevent them from sleeping easily until they have been fully resolved.
Robert Dore, solicitor, describes the Church’s protocols on anonymous allegations as “wrong” and “wholly inappropriate”.Wisdom of an elder for a Nuncio
Kevin Hayes offer some wisdom to Archbishop Brown, Papal Nuncio; as he says “At seventy-seven I feel entitled to lecture even Papal Nuncios!”
“I still have warm regard and concern for our Christian people, in Irish, Pobal Dé. I use that term rather than Church. I am not a great admirer of the institutional Catholic church. I believe the institution has become more important than the Christian message, the Word of God. The institution has become more important than the individual person and so many times its interests have been placed before the good of the person.”ACP report on Yvonne Murphy investigation published
About eighteen months ago some priests of Dublin Archdiocese approached the ACP Leadership with the proposal that a study of Judge Yvonne Murphy’s Investigation of Clerical Child Abuse in the Archdiocese be conducted.
Retired High Court Judge from Hong Kong, Mr. Fergal Sweeney, was commissioned to do this work.
We here publish his report:
Commissions of Investigation and Procedural Fairness Report (40 pages, PDF)In conjunction with this, Fr. Padraig McCarthy of the Archdiocese has just published a book on the same subject. This does not duplicate Fergal Sweeney’s work but includes further areas of analysis of the Murphy Report. Padraig’s book, An Unheard Story (published by Londubh) will be available in most bookshops.
Kilmore priests express forthright opinions at local ACP meeting
The report on their recent meeting submitted by the ACP in Kilmore diocese reveals disappointment with the Irish Hierarchy that they did not meet with the Leadership Team of the ACP — among other things.
What Needs Reform in the Church?
Sarah Mac Donald reports in the NCR on a recent talk on “What Needs Reform in the Church?” by Fr. Gabriel Daly who was speaking ahead of the launch of his new book, ‘The Church: Always in Need of Reform’
Reflecting on ‘The Joy of Love’
Brian Fahy is currently writing commentaries on the Sunday lectionary for Mayhew Publications for a book that will be published later this year. While working on this project and with Sunday B ordinary time in mind he wrote this reflection on the publication of ‘The Joy of Love’.
“The issues of what is right and what is possible can be brought together and in this latest document Pope Francis does exactly that. Justice and mercy can meet. The great thing with Francis is that he speaks our language and before him, the popes too often spoke in a ‘language that the strangers (to church matters) do not know.’ “