Cloyne cleric urges transparency and new thinking

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

A priest in Ireland’s troubled Cloyne diocese is urging the church leadership to develop a new way of thinking and acting in light of the scandal facing the diocese.

Fr Joseph McGuane, the first ordinary cleric in Cloyne to comment on the child abuse controversies, said that ordinary people were very angry that “justice has taken a back seat.”

“The leadership has sailed us into a perfect storm and there must be a new way of thinking to get us out,” he said.

“The church is in a bigger crisis now than it was back in 1994 when the Fr Brendan Smyth scandal brought down the government.”

The church needs to transform itself totally and guarantee greater transparency. There is a major task ahead rolling back “a culture of cover-up and dictatorship,” the Cloyne cleric said.

McGuane said that the emphasis within the church has been on authority and control from the top down – with desperately negative consequences.

“It would be a great help if my peers spoke out – sadly, I am the only one. There is a culture of fear within the diocese. Good people are afraid of the repercussions if they do speak out — it is hard to break ranks,” he said.

Fr McGuane said it was clear that rather than mysteriously disappearing former Bishop John Magee should have resigned three years ago when the Cloyne diocese’s problems were first highlighted by the church’s own watchdog, the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children.

“I said back in 2009 that Bishop Magee should resign. The head of FAS, the Taoiseach, the Financial Regulator and the heads of the banks, they all fell on their swords. Why should it be any different in the church?”

Fr McGuane insisted that there was hope for the future, and he said men of “courage and conviction” like the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin have signalled the way forward.

“The church is finished if we do not learn lessons. It is an urgent situation — let’s speak out together now before it is too late,” he added.

Sources