Acta Apostolicae Sedis - Commentarium Officiale688

(a) The nature of the Framework Document

The text in question was published as the Framework Document, the sub-

title of which describes it as a "report" of the Advisory Committee. In fact, it

is, as Cardinal Daly and Archbishop Connell had earlier explained, not an

official document of the Irish Bishops' Conference but a document of the

Irish Catholic Bishops' Advisory Committee on Child Sexual Abuse by

Priests and Religious, which holds the copyright. In the Foreword, signed

by Cardinal Daly and by the Reverend John Byrne OSA, then President of

the Conference of Religious of Ireland, the text is continuously referred to as

a "report" and is recommended "to individual dioceses and congregations as a

framework for addressing the issue of child sexual abuse" (p. [9]). The authors

of the Foreword also state: "This document is far from being the final word on

how to address the issues which have been raised. In common with others in

society the Church must continuously seek ways to improve its response to this

grave wrong, the sexual abuse of children" (p. [10]).

Subsequently, in a letter addressed to Archbishop Storero on 10 October

1996, the then Secretary of the Irish Bishops' Conference, Bishop Michael

Smith, in reference to the Framework Document confirmed that "The docu-

ment was not promulgated by decree of the Episcopal Conference nor was it

approved by the Conference. It was accepted by the Conference and offered to

each individual Bishop and religious Superior as guidelines that could - and

indeed should - be followed in dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse

against priests and religious." As the Cloyne Report acknowledges, "The under-

standing was that each diocese or religious institute would enact its own

particular protocol for dealing with complaints" (4.16).

The Congregation for the Clergy wrote to Archbishop Storero on 21

January 1997 and pointed out the existence of various difficulties

concerning the Framework Document, which the Nuncio subsequently

communicated to the Bishops. These are commented on in the following

sections.

The Congregation's description of the Framework Document as a "study

document", which was based on the explanations of its nature as provided by

the Irish Bishops and in the published text itself, was not a dismissal of the

serious efforts undertaken by the Irish Bishops to address the grave problem

of child sexual abuse. The Congregation, taking cognizance of the Bishops'

intention not to make the document binding, while at the same time aware

that each individual Bishop intended to adopt it for his Diocese to deal with