Church abuse papers to be examined

Cardinal Connell came under pressure to resign

Irish police are to be given access to Catholic Church documents relating to child sex abuse by clergy in the Archdiocese of Dublin.

The move followed a five-hour meeting on Monday between Cardinal Desmond Connell and two abuse victims who had been calling for his resignation.

Church officials had previously declined to grant police access to the documents. It is now thought they will get the files in the New Year.

Cardinal Connell asked to see Marie Collins and Ken Reilly after they called for a march in Dublin next week to back their demands for him to resign.

Marie Collins was abused by a priest in the 1960s

Speaking after the meeting, they said they had called off the planned march.

They also said they would and work together with diocesan officials in future to improve child-protection practices.

Marie Collins was abused by Father Paul McGennis while she was in a children's hospital in Dublin in the 1960s.

She had previously accused Cardinal Connell of misleading her when they met six years ago to discuss complaints she made to the church authorities.

Priest convicted

Ms Collins said the cardinal had said she was trying to ruin the priest's life over an incident almost 40 years before and about whom there had not been one complaint since.

But it later emerged Father McGennis's activities had been reported to the archdiocese.

The clergyman was also charged and convicted of abusing a girl in a Wicklow parish between 1977 and 1979.

You are not fit to lead the people of God, you are not fit for office. Get out, take his example and get out

Fr Patrick McCafferty

Cardinal Connell subsequently apologised to Ms Collins but she said it did not go far enough and called on him to resign. That call has now been withdrawn.

Two weeks ago, a County Antrim priest called on all senior clerics involved in what he described as the "mishandling of sex abuse cases" to resign.

Father Patrick McCafferty, of St Patrick's parish in Lisburn, said he believed Cardinal Connell, should follow the lead of the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law, who quit over criticism of his handling of clerical abuse in his diocese.

"These men, like Bernard Law, whoever they are, wherever they are, get out," he said.

"You are not fit to lead the people of God, you are not fit for office. Get out, take his example and get out."

Last October, the Irish Government announced a state inquiry into allegations of sex abuse within the Catholic Church and the failure of senior clerics to report such abuse over many decades.

Announcing the inquiry, the Justice Minister, Michael McDowell, said it was right for the government to act and that no-one was above the law.