Child sex abuse scandals risk meltdown of Irish church Â

The Catholic Church in Ireland is suffering severe damage, buffeted by the latest and possibly the angriest of a series of sex scandals that have beset it over the past decade.

Reacting to an almost unprecedented wave of public shock and revulsion, the Irish government is about to set up an inquiry into the sexual abuse of children by priests. Much condemnation is being directed not just at the abusers themselves but also at bishops, who, it is widely said, failed to protect young people.

While the church has become embroiled in scandals in many parts of the globe, especially the US, the church in Ireland is under particularly fierce attack, much of it from faithful Catholics. This is because Ireland is a small place, and because of the harrowing testimonies from victims and their parents that clerical abuse was allowed to continue despite repeated warnings.

The church stands indicted of putting its own institutional interests before those of the youngest and most vulnerable members of its flock. The allegation is that an emphasis on secrecy rather than justice created conditions for more abuse.

The church's leader in Ireland, Cardinal Desmond Connell of Dublin, has floundered in his attempts to calm the storm, being heckled and jeered after asking mass-goers to pray for him. The defence that the church did not know the scale of the problem and was unaware of the compulsive nature of paedophiles, is no longer available, given previous scandals involving child abuse. This has left the church with little defence against the shock and condemnation that followed revelations in a television documentary made by RTE, the state broadcasting authority. In one of many cases highlighted, a priest who was the subject of complaints was transferred by the cardinal to a hospital that treated children. The hospital was not told of the complaints.

The inquiry, which the government is to announce in the next few weeks, seems certain to have the effect of exposing those bishops who failed to take effective action when abuse was reported to them.

Seven years ago, the state of the church was denounced by an Irish academic as "a shabby bleak procession of Pontius Pilate lookalikes, abusing priests, disinterested abbots, impotent cardinals and unempowered parents". The critic, Professor Mary McAleese, is now President of Ireland. The fact that she used such words in 1995 shows the problems were well-known even then.

The first of these involved a priest who had abused scores of children. The second was the affair of Eamon Casey, the popular Bishop of Galway, who was discovered to be the father of a teenage son. The Casey disclosure has appeared almost insignificant in the light of the flood of sex abuse revelations.

At least 48 priests and religious brothers have been convicted of child abuse, with more than a score of further cases awaiting trial. More than 400 legal actions resulting from alleged abuse in industrial schools run by the church are awaiting settlement. Bishops and Cardinal Connell have repeatedly apologised and appealed for forgiveness.

But the overwhelming judgement is that contrition was not accompanied by firm action against offenders, and that the church displayed more compassion for erring priests than their hundreds of victims.

The church's standing has sunk to a historic low, with mass attendance dwindling and a clerical personnel crisis as few opt to become priests or nuns. Opinion polls show that more than three-quarters of Catholics consider the church's response to sexual abuse was inadequate. Less than a quarter would allow their child to go on holiday with a priest. Father Colm Kilcoyne, who speaks for Ireland's priests, described the damage in the starkest of terms, declaring: "Unless something is done, without being too dramatic about it, we're facing meltdown for the institutional church."

A fresh burst of anger followed suggestions the church might not fully co-operate with police inquiries since canon law could take precedence over civil law. The Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, has said the law of the land applies to everybody.

The sense is almost universal that the church has proven itself incapable of setting its own house in order. This, together with undiminished public outrage, suggests the inquiry will be far-reaching and will uncover more scandals.