Irish Government Releases Report On Catholic Archdiocese Handling of Abuse Complaints

The Irish government yesterday released a 720-page Commission of Investigation Report (links to full text) that it had received in July. the Report details improper handling of clergy sexual abuse complaints by the Dublin Catholic Archdiocese and by senior police officials from 1975- 2004. According to the New York Times, the Report analyzes 320 complaints against 46 priests. Only eleven of the priests-- those who have been criminally convicted-- were named in the Report. The Report concludes that three Dublin archbishops, from 1940 to 1987, chose not to alert police to abuse cases, but instead moved the offending priests to other parishes. A few priests and lower-level police officials tried, usually unsuccessfully, to pursue some of the cases. When senior police officials learned of problems, they generally handed complaints over to the Archdiocese for investigation. As evidence that the Archdiocese had knowledge of the problem, the report says that in 1987 it negotiated an insurance policy to cover costs it would incur in defending lawsuits and paying compensation claims. The abuse records were not released until in 2004 the Vatican insisted on it.