News for ACP members
1. The Assembly: Details of that event are now on the website: See above. And there is also a facility for registering your name as someone who plans to attend. We would appreciate if you would do that, so that we can have some idea of how many will be coming. We would also encourage our members to think of lay people they know who might be interested, and inform them of it, or maybe even bring them along with you.
2. The ACP, along with our legal advisors, are currently arranging a meeting with the NBSCCC (Ian Elliot), with a view to raising the concerns of our members right across the country regarding the handling of allegations against priests by Church authorities.
I am glad to hear that the ACP is meeting with Ian Elliott to discuss the real concerns of priests as to the manner in which allegations against priests are handled. If you need a vision of how the process can at times move away from the norms of natural justice just look at David Pierre’s book on Catholic Priests Falsely Accused which details how in one American Diocese over a third of accusations were found to be false and much more besides. The book is available in Veritas and what develops in America usually finds its way full blown to Ireland five years later.