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Sligo Bishop Calls Press Coverage 'unfair and unjust'

The Catholic Bishop of Elphin Christopher Jones, which includes Sligo in his diocese, has accused the press of being “unfair and unjust” to the Catholic Church through a concentration on the handling by church authorities of the clerical child sex-abuse issue.

In an Irish Times article today, the Bishop is reported as saying, “Could I just say with all this emphasis on cover-up, the cover-up has gone on for centuries, not just in the church… It’s going on today in families, in communities, in societies. Why are you singling out the church?” he asked.

He was speaking at a press conference in Maynooth yesterday where the Irish Episcopal Conference was concluding its three-day spring meeting. Bishop Jones is a member of the Bishops’ Liaison Committee for Child Protection

He continued: “I object to the way the church is being isolated and the focus on the church. We know we’ve made mistakes. Of course we’ve made mistakes but why this huge isolation of the church and this huge focus on cover-up in the church when it has been going on for centuries?

“It’s only now, for the first time ever, that victims have been given a voice to publicly express their pain and their suffering. And, before that, for centuries, no one spoke.”

He said when Sigmund Freud alluded to the high levels of venereal disease among children, “he had to withdraw it. That’s the kind of cover-up that has gone on for centuries. I think you are unfair and unjust to the church.”

His criticism comes on top of the public outrage at The Bishop of Ferns suggestion that parishioners should donate money towards the cost of abuse claims. Bishop Denis Brennan said, “This is such a painful subject for everybody, first of all for the victims, but we all share pain as a diocese as a family in one way or another. When I was diocesan delegate for child protection, I used often say to people there is enough pain in this to go around for all of us. So it’s hard to escape the pain of it,” he said.

He wants the Catholic parishioners to pay €60,000 a year over 20 years to pay for compensation and legal bills resulting from clerical child sexual abuse claims