Hundreds of Irish Catholic priests ‘to be implicated in child abuse report’

Hundreds of Irish Catholic priests ‘to be implicated in child abuse report’

Hundreds of Catholic priests are expected to be implicated in alleged child abuse in Ireland in a major report this week.

The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse has spent nine years looking into allegations from thousands of former pupils of state schools and orphanages, some which date back more than 60 years.

It is due to report on Wednesday while a second report looking into how sex abuse complaints were handled by the Catholic Church will be published by the commission in the summer.

It is thought some 500 priests have been implicated in the abuse allegations.

Many thousands of children suffered at the hands of religious orders such as the Christian Brothers and Sisters of Mercy at industrial schools and orphanages. Most of the children were born outside wedlock or came from large impoverished families that could not afford to feed them.

The commission was founded in 2000 following a documentary for Irish television which claimed there was widespread sexual, physical and emotional abuse within Catholic institutions.

Mary Raffety, who produced the programme said the abuse suffered was ‘way off the scale’ and ‘designed to break children.’

At Easter, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, said the report would “shock us all”.

“It is likely that thousands of children or young people across Ireland were abused by priests in the period under investigation and the horror of that abuse was not recognised for what it is,” he said during his Holy Thursday homily.

In 2003 the Irish Government offered compensation to victims of institutionalised child abuse in a move expected to cost £725 million.

The Comptroller and Auditor General said the estimated bill was based on just 10,000 of the 150,000 victims coming forward.

If all survivors claimed, the Republic could face a bill about £10.8 billion.

In the second report, due for publication in July, the Catholic Church is likely to face heavy criticism for trying to cover up abuse when it emerged.

In some instances the church simply moved abusive priests from parish to parish to avoid scandal.
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