- The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland;
- Towards Healing; and,
- Towards Peace.
These agencies constitute the pastoral response and support services to survivors who suffered child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Ireland. Please see further details below:
The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland provides advice on all aspects of case management, including notification of allegations and support for the complainant. Its chief executive is Ms Teresa Devlin. If you are concerned about a child or young person or wish to report a child safeguarding suspicion, concern, knowledge or allegation you should contact the statutory authorities. As the Catholic Church in Ireland has a mandatory reporting policy you can also contact the NBSCCCI by:
- Telephone 00 353 (1) 505 3124
- admin@safeguarding.ie
Towards Healing Counselling & Support Services is available to survivors of Church, Religious and Institutional abuse. The Towards Healing director is Mr Michael Lyons and the service provides lay independent and fully accredited counsellors to support survivors. Towards Healing may be contacted by:
- Freephone (UK & NI) 0800 096 3315 or (RoI) 1800 303 416
- Mobile number for Hearing Impaired Clients +353 (0) 85-8022859
- www.towardshealing.ie
Towards Peace is a service offering spiritual support to survivors of physical, emotional or sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic Church personnel in Ireland. Support is also available for family members of abuse survivors. The vision of Towards Peace is to provide a safe supportive space, where people who have been affected by abuse in a Church context can be accompanied as they seek their own experience of spiritual peace, one step at a time. Towards Peace provides spiritual support through one-to-one spiritual direction sessions, with a qualified spiritual companion. Up to twelve sessions are offered and there is no cost. The director of Towards Peace is Ms Una Allen who can be contacted by:
- Telephone: + 353 (0) 1 5053028 and on +353 (0) 86 7710533
- towardspeace@iecon.ie
- www.towardspeace.ie
