David Norris (Independent)

Any person who puts the niceties of diplomatic etiquette above the welfare, safety and protection from rape of children has no place in this country as a representative of a Christian church. I say this because he is supposed to be a diplomat. I agree with my colleagues, some of whom have said there is a separation of church and State. It is not up to me to tell any bishop to resign, rather it is up to the people in the church to do so. However, as they act politically they must be challenged and the audit must be national. Every dioceses must be examined, out of decency for the suffering children. Are we to say we have done enough here and that children in this dioceses are not entitled to have their story recorded and their situation vindicated?

We need to call the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to account too. It is all very well for him to say that no church can be above the law, but the churches are above the law. This House placed them above the law in the particularly sensitive area of children in education. We gave them exemptions from the operation of equality legislation, something no Christian church in conscience should every have asked for. It was a disgrace at the time and only Senator Joe O'Toole and myself opposed it in this House, which is also reprehensible.

I do not simply blame the Irish hierarchy; this goes right to the top. I refer to successive Heads of State in the Vatican State, the various Popes, including this one, who protected a serial abuser of his own seminarians in Mexico by giving him sanctuary in the Vatican, his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who when Cardinal Groer had to leave his position expressed compassion for Cardinal Groer and studiously ignored the victims. This is the leadership they got. The one note of hope over the weekend was the comments from right wing commentators. I heard them on every radio station rowing as fast as hell to get away from the body of the decaying ecclesiastical system.