IN ADVANCE of last week's publication of the Cloyne Report it was expected that there would be a re-run of the now all too familiar revelations of church failures to deal properly with its extensive back catalogue of sordid abuse by the clergy.
What was not expected was that the report would reveal a level of systemic failures, cover-ups and collusion that amounts to such an abuse of trust that it could force a fundamental change in church/ state relations in Ireland.
The report by Ms Justice Yvonne Murphy goes beyond highlighting failures within the diocese of Cloyne and stands as an indictment of how the Catholic hierarchy dealt with clerical sex abuse in Ireland and how they had the arrogance to regard the law of the land as somehow subservient to the law of the church.
The inquiry itself didn't set out to establish whether or not the many allegations of child sex abuse by priests in Cloyne were true or not, instead it examined the manner in which church and state authorities dealt with these complaints.
The Commission of Investigation found that the former bishop of Cloyne John Magee not only failed to implement church procedures for dealing with abuse cases but also lied to both the previous government and to the HSE about the diocese's handling of abuse complaints.
Dr Magee, who is a former private secretary to three popes, is described in the report as an 'ineffective bishop' who took ' little or no active interest' in child sex abuse cases.
Instead he delegated the job to Mgr Denis O'Callaghan of Mallow who was found in the report to have been 'uncommitted' to the task and guilty of 'inexplicable failures' to recognise child sex abuse.
Worse still, Mgr O'Callaghan 'stymied' the implementation of the church's own reporting procedures and didn't even accept that the church had a responsibility to report alleged offenders to the civil authorities.
If that was the whole story of the sad and sorry affair it would be truly, truly awful.
The shocking reality though is that the story doesn't stop with the diocese of Cloyne and its shameful failure of alleged abuse victims.
No, this is a disgrace that is shared by the entire Catholic church and runs right to the gilded halls of the Vatican.
In 1996 the Irish Bishops' Conference introduced its 'framework document', which outlined procedures for reporting sex abuse claims to garden and the HSE.
However, the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy subsequently told Irish bishops the framework document was not official, was merely a discussion document and that it 'appeared contrary to canonical discipline' in places.
The effect of this - coming straight from the Vatican - was to give a safe place to shelter to those who preferred to do nothing rather than face up to the awful reality of clerical sex abuse.
The behaviour of those at the top is hugely important, bearing in mind that the Catholic Church is the absolute model of a hierarchical power structure.
It is not difficult to understand how Bishop Magee and Mgr O'Callaghan could feel they were doing the right thing by protecting the church.
Following the revelations in the Cloyne Report, Justice Minister Alan Shatter has promised to bring in new legislation to make reporting of child abuse mandatory, with jail terms of up to five years for priests who fail to report paedophiles to the gardai.
Given the church's appalling record on protecting children from clerical sex abusers and its history of cover-ups, there is no reason to believe there aren't more skeletons in the cupboard in every diocese in Ireland.
We know we can't trust the church to deal honestly with this so the law of the land must.
In Taoiseach Enda Kenny's words ' the law of the land should not be stopped by a crozier or a collar'.
The sooner that thinking is put into effect the better and if the church is uncomfortable with it then it is no more than what it has earned.
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