A spokesperson for one of the groups affected by clerical abuse has said that the church is acting on the matter with a much greater degree of urgency than ever before.
Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse group spokesperson Jon McCourt said, “the sense of urgency is creeping in, there seems to be more counselling available, almost in an immediate fashion.”
“This is showing us that they are taking this issue as seriously as the politicians and the Executive in Northern Ireland are taking it.”
Mr McCourt made his comments as members of his organisation met with the former Archbishop of Westminister Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor recently in Newry and attended a special service of penitence and healing in Saint Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh.
Cardinal Murphy O'Connor is one of a number of Apostolic visitors sent from Rome to Ireland recently and has specifically been assigned to the Armagh Archdiocese.
Speaking at the weekend he said that he had encountered, “a sense of betrayal” and, “an awareness that things will never be the same again” in the Armagh Archdiocese.
However, he added, “I have also heard voices of faith and a determination to persevere in the building up of the Church in this diocese.”
He added that while he has been in the Archdiocese of Armagh for the past two weeks he has, “heard voices of great pain and suffering of the survivors of abuse , voices of discouragement, voices of honesty and the integrity of the people and good priests.”
However, he added that above all he had listened to the voices of hope, “hope that the past will not be forgotten .. and transparency in facing the issues of abuse.”
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