-Surprise at Independent's 'serious misrepresentation'
Garry O'Sullivan
A leading clerical theologian has criticised The Irish Independent newspaper for seriously misrepresenting what he said in a lecture to Trinity College theology students last Monday evening.
Fr Eamonn Conway told students in a wide-ranging lecture on 'Child Sexual Abuse and the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland - Where do we go from here?' that ''the healing process must begin not with forgiveness but with repentance, characterised by full recognition of the full awfulness of what has happened, by those who have betrayed victims both as sexual offenders and as Church office-holders. Anything else would be unfair, callous, and self-serving from the Church's point of view.''
Reporting
However The Irish Independent, while reporting accurately the content of the talk, misrepresented Dr Conway in the headline which read, ''Victims 'must forgive to begin healing process'''.
Dr Conway added: ''The Murphy Report has completely vindicated victims...
Those who have committed criminal acts must face the full rigours of the law. However, at the end of the day criminal and legal processes, and even financial compensation are limited in terms of delivering justice and healing. What is needed in my view is a genuine process of repentance which would have forgiveness as its goal, but this could only come only at the end of a long journey during which the Church recognises the full awfulness of the evil in which it was complicit.''
He added: ''At some point it might prove helpful if a process is initiated in which the full awfulness of what has happened is exposed and explored by all parties without recourse to the solace of immediate words or gestures of apology. I believe such encounters could be transformative both for the victims and for the Church. Understandably, as I said on Monday evening, given the double betrayal of trust victims have already experienced, they might reasonably be very reluctant to go down this road and need considerable reassurance regarding the intentions and integrity of those who would be taking part.''
