No church reform until abuse crisis addressed - Farrell

There will be no reform or renewal of the Catholic Church in Ireland until the abuse crisis has been fully addressed, Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell has said.

Archbishop Farrell said there was a "culture of denial" in the Catholic Church when it came to the issue of child sexual abuse.

He was making reference to the scoping inquiry into allegations of abuse at schools run by religious orders, which earlier this month found that there were 2,395 allegations of sexual abuse in respect of 308 schools recorded by the religious orders that ran those schools.

During a sermon at St Mary's Pro-Cathedral last night, he said: "Listening to the stark and distressing testimony of this, and other reports over the last 20 years is as painful and difficult, as the content of those reports is outrageous and scandalous.

"While some are filled with anger, others close their ears, or dismiss it, or explain it away, or blame the extensive coverage on hostility towards the church, there is a thread of denial and disengagement in many of these responses.

"It is possible to go further, and speak even of a 'culture of denial' with respect to sexual abuse.

"It is vital that we come to recognise the dynamics of denial, and address them."

The allegations in the scoping report were made in respect of 884 distinct alleged abusers.

The incidents of sexual abuse were, in the main, described as having occurred between the early 1960s and the early 1990s, with the highest number of reported incidents occurring in the early to mid-1970s.

The Government has said it would adopt the report's recommendation of creating a commission of inquiry to examine the matter.

The Archbishop said the church had yet to fully come to terms to what was done to the "thousands upon thousands of innocent and vulnerable people over such a long period of time".

He said: "Sadly, it is not new to hear that there was widespread abuse of pupils and that shameful acts were perpetrated by religious themselves, as well as by teachers, peers, and others employed in their schools.

"What was new was the presentation of an extensive, sustained and horrific pattern of abuse which has disfigured our tradition of Catholic education and profoundly damaged the lives of so many young people and their families.

"Until the abuse crisis is fully addressed, there will be no authentic, enduring renewal and reform of our church."