Pope's letter on child abuse 'inadequate'

He said that it did not send out sufficiently clear signals to Church leaders on what remains to be done to investigate the past and to reform the Church for the future.

"I read the letter with a growing sense that another important opportunity had not been grasped properly. I welcome the apology from the Pope though even that could have been worded more unambiguously,” he said.

"However a full consideration of this issue required a thorough analysis of what went wrong and why it went wrong. That should have led to a clear indication to the Irish Church as to the steps necessary to prevent this kind of abuse, or any other kind of abuse, in the future. In that regard the letter is weak.

"There is criticism of some bishops in that they failed to apply canon law and that "grave errors of judgement were made and failures of leadership occurred". But the exact nature of these failures is not spelled out. The failure to report to civil authorities to prevent further abuse is not made explicit, and it should have been.

"Among the causes of the abuse is listed ‘a tendency in society to favour the clergy and other society figures’. What is not addressed is the very unhealthy culture of centralised clerical power within the Church and the attendant secrecy. If that is not even admitted, what hope is there of correcting it thoroughly?

"There is reference to an Apostolic Visitation of certain dioceses and institutions. I believe that a further investigation of what happened in other dioceses is necessary. Whether that is a job for the Church or the states is to be determined. I see merit in the Church cleaning out its own stable, but there has to be clear independence of action of any investigating body. That is not referred to,” said Mr O’Loan.

"There has been much public discussion of the role of the laity in the future of the Church. The Pope's letter merely talks of ‘encouraging’ the laity to play a ‘proper’ part in the life of the Church. There is no discussion or indication as to what that proper place should be, or how it will relate to current power structures.

"I find it embarrassing that, in many historical instances, the lead in developing human rights has come from secular society rather than from the Church,” said the North Antrim MLA.

“Indeed it has often been achieved against opposition by the Church. Once again in this area of responding to child abuse, despite the strongest imperative, the Church appears to be slow to move in a necessary direction.

"There remains an urgent task to be done in fully revealing what has happened in the past and fully responding to that through a fundamental reconsideration of Church culture, systems and structure. Cardinal Brady can still lead that work. However to do so, he must do so in a way that goes far beyond the Pope's letter, and he needs to show immediately that he has the will and instinct to do this,” said Mr O’Loan.