Ireland keeps bracing for release of Dublin abuse report

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"The revered reputations of four of the most powerful Irish churchmen of recent times will take a hefty unspiritual nosedive with the imminent publication of most of the horrific findings of the Commission of Investigation into the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin," writes John Cooney, a columnist for the Irish Independent.

"Revealed will be a scandalous litany of systematic cover-up of rapist clerics, some of them serial offenders, during the episcopal reigns of: Cardinal Desmond Connell, 1988-2004;Kevin McNamara, 1985-87; Dermot Ryan, 1972-1984; and John Charles McQuaid, 1940-1972."

The much anticipated report on Dublin is the latest in a string of government reports that have rocked the church in Ireland. Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who decided to cooperate with the government investigation and turned over files reaching back to 1940, has registered his own deep disgust with what he's read of the files and has warned that the church will be humbled when the information becomes public.

Read Cooney's entire column here.