Sorry, says the Bishop of Clonfert. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Didn't know any better.
Yes, Bishop John Kirby didn't know about pedophiles way back in those long ago days of the late 1990's.
Does it seem that long ago to you?
It wasn't until 1999 that Bertie Ahern, An Taoiseach at the time, apologized to all the victims of Ireland's policy of incarcerating poor children in small pockets of hell run by the Catholic Church.
So before that day, who knew about priests abusing children?
Among the clergy, that is. The laity had a notion early on, well before Bishop Kirby copped on.
He's sorry, the bishop, that he moved a couple of child abusers around the diocese after they were caught abusing children. The power of the confessional wasn't enough to erase the problem from the hearts and minds of the pedophile priests. Who would have thought a sacrament would fail?
It isn't entirely the bishop's fault, of course. He notified authorities, but what garda in 1990's Ireland would dare prosecute a member of the clergy? Unless the bishop marched the miscreant down to the station and demanded that the offender be locked up, the issue would have been swept under the rug.
And the priest would have been moved along to some other parish, to be dealt with by some other community that had no idea their new minister was thinking how he might groom one of their children.
The apologies have begun to wear thin.
Everyone is sorry. But nothing has been done, after all these years, to compensate the victims of the abuse who have to find ways to live with their nightmares. Nothing has been done to assist the families of those victims, who deal with the fall-out of the damage inflicted, who mourn the suicides and cope with the alcoholics.
Isn't it true that actions speak louder than words?
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