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An Open Letter to Ireland's Catholic bishops

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William Crawley | 17:23 UK time, Saturday, 5 December 2009

On Wednesday and Thursday, Ireland's bishops will meet in St Patrick's College, Maynooth, to discuss their response to the clerical abuse crisis. Ahead of that meeting, Marie Collins, a survivor of clerical abuse in Dublin, has written an Open Letter to the bishops. This is the letter in full:


To Ireland's Catholic bishops: An Open Letter

The existence and use of a means to mislead and lie to individuals and the general public, known as Mental Reservation, has been confirmed [1] by a Cardinal of the Irish Catholic Church to the Commission of Investigation into the Dublin Archdiocese

Two instances of this method of misleading the people appear in the Commission's report, there may be many more, one was used in a press statement to the people in my case [2] and another was used in the case of survivor Andrew Madden [3]

The people of the Catholic Church in Ireland deserve to know that this means of lying with an easy conscience will never again be used by any member of the Irish Hierarchy or any other clerical member of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

I am asking that the Irish Bishops Conference issue a public statement immediately giving this assurance to the Irish people. This statement must be in clear language with no ambiguity and no use of Mental Reservation.

If no such statement is made we can draw our own conclusions.

Marie Collins
4 December 2009
Dublin Clerical Abuse Survivor


References

[1] 58.19/20 Report into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin
[2] 58.22 Report into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin
[3] 58.21 Report into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    Did Saint Patrick really drive the snakes out of Ireland....or did he open the door to welcome them in?

  • Comment number 2.

    After "listening again" to today's show here in Canada, I am astonished at the mealy mouthed words spoken by representatives of the Roman Catholic Church put forth. Said words serve to show that the Vatican and its minions have really only learned one thing: political spin! We are all hypocrites and sinners, but the Roman Catholic Church has brought hypocrisy to a new level. It almost makes this lapsed Catholic wish there was truly a vengeful God, in the tradition of the Old Testament.

  • Comment number 3.

    You don't have to go to Dublin, William, to find a bishop skilled in mental reservation. Donal McKeown is caught in flagranti when he tells us he heard the term for the first time last week. He has been close enough to some of the best practitioners to be intimate with the thing itself even if he doesn't know what to call it. Intelligent people don't tell lies, or, if they do, they don't get caught. Rome is certainly to blame for appointing such a string of mediocrities to Irish bishoprics. There are men of intelligence and integrity in the Irish priesthood who have minds and hearts of their own. They don't rise to the top because they can't be trusted to play the game. But the game is over now, an enormous own goal.

  • Comment number 4.

    Didn't hear the programme this morning, sounds as if I'm glad I didn't! Rusticatus, when you say; ' There are men of intelligence and integrity in the Irish priesthood who have minds and hearts of their own. They don't rise to the top because they can't be trusted to play the game', are you refering to Fr Mc Patrick Cafferty?

  • Comment number 5.

    I think that in an American courtroom in testimony under oath, what the Catholic heirarchy calls "mental reservations" a prosecutor or judge would call "perjury."

  • Comment number 6.

    "In response to the many concerns raised about the use of “Mental Reservation”, we wish to categorically state that it has no place in covering up evil." (Bishops' statement of yesterday)
    Sorry, lads. This won't do at all at all. It's just another example of "mental reservation". It says all too clearly that mental reservation is allowed when you don't think you're using it to cover up evil. You have shown that you can't be trusted to know when you're covering up evil. And a lie is a lie is a lie. If you can't come up with an outright rejection of the practice you should all resign. Nobody will ever take you seriously again. The snivelling of Eamonn Walsh and Martin Drennan is beneath contempt.

  • Comment number 7.

    Here, from the old Catholic Encyclopedia, is the old Catholic doctrine of mental reservation that a Catholic Doctor of Divinity and Bishop told Sunday Sequence he had never heard of before the Murphy Report:

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