CBC News
60 Minutes
March 1, 2012 4:14 PM
(CBS News) The child sex abuse crisis and cover-up in the Catholic Church of Ireland has taken a devastating toll on one of the most Catholic countries in the world. Some parishes that once saw 90 percent Sunday Mass attendance are down to 2 percent. A country that once produced so many priests that they were considered an important export now doesn’t have enough for its own churches. And, despite the publication of the Murphy Commission’s report, a scathing analysis of the abuse and cover-up, the scandal is not over, says Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, one of the highest ranking church officials to openly criticize the Catholic Church. The archbishop speaks to Bob Simon for a “60 Minutes” report about the effects of the scandal on Ireland to be broadcast Sunday, March 4 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT.
When Martin became archbishop, he provided the Murphy Commission with 65,000 files his predecessor had refused to turn over. In his sermons, he confronted the Church head-on for the behavior that caused the scandal. Now the church is at a breaking point; now is not the time to forget he says. “There’s a real danger today of people saying, ‘The child abuse scandal is over. Let’s bury it. Let’s move on,'” he tells Simon. “It isn’t over. Child protection and the protection of children is something that will go on…for the rest of our lives and into the future. Because the problems are there,” says the archbishop.
Martin takes Simon on a tour of his old seminary in Dublin. “When I entered this building…there were 120 of us, and they were building a new extension. At the moment, I have 10 seminarians.”
In the southwest of Ireland, Simon talks to the people of Allihies, who remember when the parish priest had more power than the mayor or the police chief. It was a special status that set the stage for the abuse and the cover-up. Says Monica Polly, a parish council member in the town, “They cover it up because the priests were supposed to be perfect. They had an image of what they should be and they kept to that image rather than the reality.” She has grown pessimistic. “To be honest, I don’t think we’ve seen it all yet.”
Simon also talks to a priest, the Rev. Shane Crombie, who is optimistic about the future of the Church. Crombie uses the analogy of fire to describe the Church’s troubles. He keeps a charred cross on the altar of his church, a remnant of the original building rebuilt after burning down 25 years ago. It’s a reminder that the Catholic Church, too, can emerge from the flames that have engulfed it. “I think the fire that’s burning in the church at the moment is… the fire of disappointment, the fire of absolute rejection…of cover-up,” he tells Simon. “It is the people, it was the people that rallied together to rebuild this church. It will be the people who will rebuild the church that is on fire,” says Crombie.
This is sooooooooooo fresh and encouraging, coming from these two. It gives me hope, and I hope it does so for others. They would both be wise to cast an eye over their shoulders and watch their backs, however.
Their bosses in the Vatican City are not pleased. Mike.