I wish to express my deep sadness today on hearing of the death of Mary Raftery.
Mary was instrumental in helping many of us as we sought to expose the truth about what the Catholic Church and others knew about the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in Ireland. Mary understood that the Catholic Church’s concealment of the sexual abuse of children was systemic but that it could best be exposed by helping survivors share personal experience and through her work provided a way for some of us to do that.
Mary Raftery has contributed hugely to helping survivors receive some semblance of justice: The Ryan and Murphy Reports are now part of the public record of this country and will remain there and continue to inform us for many years. For too many survivors, having those Reports on the public record is the only justice they have ever received.
I will be forever grateful to Mary for all she has done to help shed a light where it wasn’t wanted and I offer my condolences to her family, friends and loved ones.
END 10/01/2012
