WONFIFTY

The Catholic Church is considering the future of a priest jailed for five years for helping a known paedophile groom a 12-year-old girl for sex.

Kerry priest, Fr Jeremiah McGrath, 63, who also worked in Fermanagh, gave thousands to paedophile William Adams.

He was sentenced last week. On Saturday, the bishop of Clogher said the priest's order woud decide his future when the judicial process ended.

Bishop Joseph Duffy said the Church was committed to protecting children.

How long can we seriously allow this to go on? The church has been known to protect abusive priests for years. Isn't it about time they stopped burying their heads in the sand andd started dealing with the situation. This whole sad history smacks of a religious community committed to maintaining the power and authority of the church than protecting the vulnerable children abused at the hands of a few bad priests. I am not a member of any organised religion, but I strongly appreciate the need and desire for others to seek such faith. It is their choice.

If, however, the church wishes to attract Joe Blogs into its religious forum, it is imperative that it genuinely adopts a zero tolerance policy on priests who abuse their position in society as is the case in many other professions. Just because the church preaches largely upon a principle intangible and based on hearsay, it does not mean that they should be any more exempt from committing crimes as say, a teacher, lawyer or doctor. In some ways, it is worse because we rely on their religious know-how and it is easier to accept that they are performing actions 'in the name of God' rather than in the name of the government or the police force.

If the church wishes to be taken seriously, then it needs to stop turning a blind eye to such abhorrent crimes and move swiftly into the 21st century. It is also up to local congregations to stand up for what is right, stop harboring criminals and stop being brainwashed by individuals simply because they say they work for God. It is not acceptable to remain in denial about the abuse of children by priests and in society at large because it may strongly test their own faith. 

It is NOT ok for the guy on the street to molest a child, so why on earth should it be alright for a priest? It is the responsibilty of everyone to stamp out these crimes and if you suspect that a child is being abused in any situation, it is your God given responsibility to do something about it.

I will be extremely interested to see how the Catholic Church handles this situation and I will keep you informed of any updates....