Church & State Editorial on the Child Abuse Commission
In the last issue of Church & State we reproduced the submission of the Campaign to Separate Church and State to the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. In a nutshell the purpose of the submission was to draw attention to questions that we hoped the Commission would investigate. The Commission duly acknowledged the submission and Commission staff have been helpful in answering any questions we have put to them over the last year.
It is heartening to see the manner in which the Commission has set about its business. A question and answer information leaflet produced by the Commission, which we reproduce below, illustrates how the focus of the work is aimed at helping victims of institutional abuse to participate in the proceedings. Of course it is still early days and niggling doubts about the bona fides of the Irish state in these matters are difficult to dispel.
There are at least four serious questions which will need to be addressed if this admittedly difficult inquiry is to be successful:
Will the victims be compensated financially for the mistreatment they endured?
Will the proceedings of the Commission be public so that public opinion can be informed of the allegations as they are processed?
Will the religious orders be made to pay for their abuse and negligence, or will the State foot the bill?
Will the Commission probe why wider safeguard mechanisms such as are found in politics, the civil service, the legal profession and the media, failed to operate?
Compensation
The Commission itself will have no involvement in the awarding of compensation. A separate Compensation Tribunal is being established so that the expense of legal proceeding can be kept to a minimum. Victims of abuse must make their case to the Commission and separately pursue any claims for compensation with the Compensation Tribunal. It seems like a lot of work for the victims but such tribulations are probably unavoidable.
Public Proceedings?
There are two Committees which victims may use to record their experiences: the Confidential Committee and the Investigation Committee. Clearly the proceeding of the Confidential Committee will not be public.
The work of the Investigation Committee will go through two phases. Phase I will be where individuals make their allegations and representatives of the institutions make their responses, and will be held in camera (no publcity). Phase II will involve hearings about particular institutions where the allegations have been found to be true. These hearings will be in public.
The Commission hopes to commence Phase I before Christmas. Well over a hundred allegations of abuse have already been received and another few hundred are expected. Phase II will start before Phase I is completed.
Will the Church have to Pay?
The success of the entire project will depend on the answer to this question. Ms Joe Baker of the Organisation for Recovery from Institutional Abuse told this journal:
The idea of ensuring that justice is done is extremely important to the victims of abuse, most of whom are now in their sixties and seventies. And if justice is to be done, the religious orders will have to be seen to make reparation. The religious orders were sub-contracted to provide a service and they failed to provide that service.
Wider Social Responsibility?
The final report of the Commission will be an important document. Twenty years ago the story of clerical abuse of children in institutions was more than Irish public opinion could bear. Despite our misgivings about the current cultural vacuum, a certain maturation has occurred in the intervening period.
The Commission Report should provide an opportunity for further maturation. The bottom line is that children in institutions were abused because the Catholic Church had too much power and was above criticism. But the blame should extend to powerful interests other than the religious orders and the Government of the day to: the civil service (some sections of which were notoriously subservient to the Catholic Bishops), the judiciary, and the media. Hopefully, when the final report is published Irish society will have moved beyond moral childhood— the black and white stage where the Catholic Church is either looked up to as infallibly virtuous or execrated as irredeemably evil.
The manner in which the mistreatment of children in institutions is investigated and learned from should be seen as a test of the moral integrity of contemporary society.
If you wish to subscribe to the Irish Political Review, Labour & Trade Union Review, Church & State or Problems Of Capitalism & Socialism please go to our secure sales area. Postal delivery is free within the European Union.
Return to More On Child Abuse And The Catholic Church In Ireland