<p>
	The decision has been welcomed by an organisation representing priests in Ireland, which said support is needed for those wrongly accused.</p>
<p>
	New Child Protection guidelines for the Catholic Church in Ireland will include a section on priests who have been accused of abuse.</p>
<p>
	The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCCI) confirmed to TheJournal.ie that guidelines about the duty of care to an accused priest will be included, with a draft due to be submitted for a period of consultation next month.</p>
<p>
	Sean McDonagh of the Association of Catholic Priests said this was a welcome move in the case of wrongly accused priests in the Church.</p>
<p>
	He said there is a difficult balancing act when it comes to abuse allegations, between duty of care to the child and fairness to the priest involved.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;Of course, absolutely anything that can protect children in the church we&rsquo;d be in favour of and we have done that over the years.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	Though he said priests are supportive of measures to protect children, there have been cases where people have been falsely accused, citing one example where a priest was was of the ministry for a number of years until court proceedings were finished.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;Priests are in a unique position in terms of these issues. If it&rsquo;s a garda or a teacher, they can just go home to their house. Priests are living in houses owned by the diocese so where do they go?&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	He also referred to a study conducted by Amarach in 2012, which found that almost half of Irish people thought 20% of priests are paedophiles.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;That&rsquo;s absolutely crazy and we like to point out that&rsquo;s not so. Priests got a lot of attention for this, rather than teachers or doctors or garda&iacute; in the same position.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	<a href="http://www.thejournal.ie/priest-child-abuse-1948599-Feb2015/">http://www.thejournal.ie/priest-child-abuse-1948599-Feb2015/</a></p>
