Since the Murphy Report was published any number of commentators have suggested how the Church can 'fix' itself. These suggestions range from the do-able (although not without the approval of Rome) such as ending the rule of celibacy, to the absolutely insane, immoral and unacceptable such as approving the 'right' to abortion.

These changes, we are told, will do two things. First, they will enable the Church to better protect children and secondly they will make the Church more relevant again, more appealing to people.

The critics are wrong on both counts. The Church is already far safer for children than it was 5, 10 or 20 years ago. A robust child protection system is in place that will require constant diligence so as to ensure proper enforcement, but which is already ensuring that the vast majority of allegations being made against priests relate to events in the past, not the present.

In other words, the reforms proposed by the critics will not make the Church safer in any appreciable way because the Church is already safer, as safe as any major organisation in the country including anything run by the State.

Secondly, the proposed radical reforms in teaching such as women priests will not renew the Church. Numerous other Churches have already introduced some, most or all of the suggested reforms. These Churches are the Churches of liberal Protestantism and all of them are ailing far more badly than the Catholic Church.

Take, for example, the Lutherans in Denmark. Danish Lutheranism has done practically everything it possibly can to win the approval of secular, liberal opinion. In the main it has won that approval in the form of a patronising pat on the head, but it has won back almost no worshippers. In fact, only one Dane in fifty goes to church on a weekly basis.

How will the Catholic Church renew itself instead? The answer is by by turning to the Gospel and the early Church and, of course, the Second Vatican Council. Our understanding of the Gospel and exactly how it is lived from age to age can, does and should change. Yet the essentials will remain the same. Above all, people want to find real meaning in their lives, and if the Church cannot provide that, then it has failed. Constant renewal is the only way to keep true to the founding principles of Christianity.

Merrion Sq. name change?

Unknown to most people the park in the middle of Merrion Square in Dublin city centre is called Archbishop Ryan Park. It was handed over to Dublin City Council years ago by the Archdiocese of Dublin and this was the name given to it.

But because Archbishop Ryan has been named and shamed in the Murphy Report, Dublin City Council has voted to change the name following a consultation with Dubliners.

Perhaps we should look no further than the Murphy Report for a new name for the park, and name it for the victims who relentlessly pressurised the Dublin archdiocese to do something about clerical sexual abuse, a diocese which was filled with clergy who were qualified barristers and canon lawyers, with endless disposable income to spend on advisers, lawyers, psychologists and yet they still failed innocent children.

The park should be renamed to recognise all those who were abused not just in the Dublin archdiocese, but who have been abused all over the country as documented in the Ferns, Ryan and Murphy reports. It would be a fitting name change.