Dublin report: 30 years of priest sexual abuse covered up

As I stated in yesterday's post, six months ago the Irish government issued a report detailing decades of abuse at Catholic run boarding schools and orphanages. Tens of thousands of children were subjected to slave-like conditions, including physical, mental, emotional and sexual abuse.

Yesterday, the Irish government released the report of a completely separate investigation detailing 30 years of widespread sexual abuse of children in Dublin by Catholic priests. Most damning (no pun intended) is that four successive archbishops of Dublin were aware of the abuse and covered it up in order to protect themselves, the priests and the Church. The report only covers the last 30 years. It is safe to assume that the culture of abuse goes back far beyond that.

According to The Irish Times:

The Commission of Investigation into Dublin’s Catholic Archdiocese has concluded that there is “no doubt” that clerical child sexual abuse was covered up by the archdiocese and other Church authorities.

In its report, published this afternoon, it has also found that “the structures and rules of the Catholic Church facilitated that cover-up.”

Over the period within its remit “the welfare of children, which should have been the first priority, was not even a factor to be considered in the early stages,” it said.

“Instead the focus was on the avoidance of scandal and the preservation of the good name, status and assets of the institution and of what the institution regarded as its most important members – the priests,” it said.

The report states that there was an "obsessive concern" with secrecy, avoidance of scandal and protection of Church assets.

One of the tactics used by the archbishops and other Church officials was to apply a Catholic doctrine known as "Mental Reservation". "Mental Reserveration" is another way of saying "lying". According to The Catholic Encyclopedia:

According to the common Catholic teaching it is never allowable to tell a lie, not even to save human life. A lie is something intrinsically evil, and as evil may not be done that good may come of it, we are never allowed to tell a lie. However, we are also under an obligation to keep secrets faithfully, and sometimes the easiest way of fulfilling that duty is to say what is false, or to tell a lie. Writers of all creeds and of none, both ancient and modern, have frankly accepted this position. They admit the doctrine of the lie of necessity, and maintain that when there is a conflict between justice and veracity it is justice that should prevail. The common Catholic teaching has formulated the theory of mental reservation as a means by which the claims of both justice and veracity can be satisfied.

This means that a Catholic priest, bishop, archbishop, cardinal, pope or other official can lie to the public--and even to law enforcement--so long as the purpose of the lie is to protect Church secrets (such as that priests are sexually assaulting children).

How can anyone trust the Catholic church or claim that it has any moral authority?

The entire Dublin report can be read here:
Part One
Part Two