Today, Department of Justice in Ireland released the Dublin Report, which details the scandal of sexual abuse in the Irish Church over the course of several decades.

The Irish Times reports:

The Commission of Investigation into Dublin’s Catholic Archdiocese has concluded that there is “no doubt” that clerical child sexual abuse was covered up by the archdiocese and other Church authorities.

The commission’s report covers the period between January 1st 1975 and April 30th 2004. It said there cover-ups took place over much of this period.

In its report, published this afternoon, it has also found that “the structures and rules of the Catholic Church facilitated that cover-up.”

It also found that “the State authorities facilitated the cover-up by not fulfilling their responsibilities to ensure that the law was applied equally to all and allowing the Church institutions to be beyond the reach of the normal law enforcement processes.”

Over the period within its remit “the welfare of children, which should have been the first priority, was not even a factor to be considered in the early stages,” it said.

“Instead the focus was on the avoidance of scandal and the preservation of the good name, status and assets of the institution and of what the institution regarded as its most important members – the priests,” it said.

Obviously, the cover-up involved more than clerics and other Church officials. And the release of the report will serve, as Archbishop Diurmud Martin said in an interview with Vatican Radio, to close a chapter and allow healing to begin.

Still, this is a sad day. Here at work, the release of the report has really hit people -- especially my Irish colleagues.

In his interview, Archbishop Martin said, "I think of the horror of what they (the victims) went through...They've had to live with this terrible suffering." When Philippa Hitchen asked what bishops were thinking when they covered this up, Archbishop Martin replied that many Church leaders did not have the same sense of how disastrous this abuse was for children. 

This I find difficult to accept, though I know it to be true. The human mind has an amazing capacity to shield itself from terrible realities, especially evil of this sort.

Still, my mind always comes back to the question: How could so many people, churchmen and lay, be blind to the reality? Abuse of this sort, especially in the Church, is devastating. It is a grotesque distortion of love. 

The Church will heal, and so will the abused. I am convinced that God has a special mercy for these victims. Still, let us pray for all those who are affected this day by the release of the report, especially the perpetrators of abuse, the victims, and their families.