Amplify’d from www.sbpost.ie
The Sunday Business Post has learned that the bishops have consented to a proposal that would change the longstanding rule under which individual bishops unilaterally decide what level of evidence must be produced before a priest is forced to take what is termed ‘priestly leave’.
The existing rules are based on a historic instruction from the Vatican which alludes to the unilateral power which a bishop possesses over the priests of his diocese.
Under these rules, a bishop or the head of a religious order effectively has the power of deciding whether a cleric should be forced to take priestly leave, when accused of a sex offence. In practice, this has meant that different bishops and heads of orders have applied widely different standards and interpretations when dealing with abuse accusations.
In some cases, bishops have forced priests to stand aside after relatively questionable accusations while, in other cases, bishops have allowed priests to remain in full ministry for long periods after a number of complaints had been made against them.
The bishops are understood to have accepted a set of new proposals made by Ian Elliott, the chief executive of the Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC).
The proposals would see a widespread standardisation being applied to how bishops respond to such accusations and the conditions under which a priest must be placed on priestly leave.
The bishops are understood to have consented only recently to the change, which is likely to be approved and applied quickly. It is believed that the new guidelines would involve bishops retaining the ultimate power to determine what action should be taken and when; but it would set out an agreed best practice against which the actions of the bishops could be ultimately benchmarked. The guidelines are expected to be made public once formally approved.
The NBSC has just begun conducting a series of audits into child protection across all Catholic dioceses, after which it will conduct similar audits among the religious orders and other congregations in Ireland.
The audits will focus on the application of existing child protection guidelines.
This review process is expected to last until the end of the year, with a mid-term report expected from the NBSC as early as next month, to coincide with the board’s annual report.
The move comes as the Church is preparing for a series of difficult weeks ahead, with the impending publication of the Commission of Investigation into the diocese of Cloyne.
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