Sex Abuse and Orthodoxy

On March 20 the Vatican released a summary of the findings and recommendations of its offical visitation to Ireland. The investigation recognized serious shortcomings in the handling of accusations of sexual abuse of minors but found that today Ireland’s bishops, clergy and lay faithful are doing an “excellent” job creating safe environments for children. The investigators found that Irish bishops need to update their child protection guidelines, establish “more consistent admission criteria” for seminarians and formulate policies on how best to deal with clergy and religious “falsely accused” of abuse or convicted of abuse. The investigators also warned of a “fairly widespread” tendency among priests, religious and laity to hold unspecified unorthodox views.