Update from Ireland
The enthusiastic turnout for Easter liturgies in some churches was seized upon by some clergy here as welcome starlight in a long dark night - but there are still too few signs that leadership understands the need for VOTF goal 3: structural change to achieve the 'culture of accountability' that was called for by the recent report of the Church's own child safeguarding body, the NBSCCC.
Without such structures the long-term pastoral care of Ireland's thousands of abuse survivors may well become another avoidable source of scandal in the future. The clerical monopoly of leadership and ministry in the Irish church is clearly doomed, but where are the signs of an orderly transition to something capable of harnessing the idealism of Ireland's younger generations?
