Msgr O'Callaghan - 'I should have resigned'

Sixteen years on from the publication of the bishops' Child
Protection Guidlines, the priest charged with being the Cloyne diocese's
delegate for child protection has admitted that he should have resigned
as delegate as he was unable in conscience to fully implement the
guidelines.

In a letter to The Irish Catholic, Msgr Denis O'Callaghan writes
about his commitment to pastoral care of priests and how this came in
conflict with the demands of the 1996 guidelines to report to the
statutory authorities.

He writes: ''Judge Yvonne Murphy was made aware of the Cloyne
commitment to pastoral care but the commission focused on its remit of
reporting on whether or not procedures were fulfilled.

''In hindsight, I accept that I should have resigned on the point of
principle from my role as delegate once I came to realise the
implications of the 1996 guidelines for the overriding duty of pastoral
care.''

Msgr O'Callaghan states that he argued in the drafting stages of the
1996 guidelines that the ''form of mandatory reporting'' required
compromised the ''Christian duty of pastoral care''. 

He says in Cloyne
many of the complaints referred to elderly or dead priests.

''For most of those priests accused in Cloyne, the complaints alleged
incidents dating back over 30 or 40 years. Of those priests, some would
now be terminally ill while others would be under constant medical
care. The literal guidelines did not allow for any discretion to bishops
and to their delegates. Reporting was to be made immediately. No
exception was to be made even when an accused priest was on his
death-bed.''

Source