Abuse inquiry urged as Irish bishop quits

national | miscellaneous | news report Saturday April 13, 2002 13:50 by Ferganoid - StopAbuse.org

Another nail in their coffin

Allegations against paedophile priests have convulsed the Catholic church in Ireland this month, forcing the resignation of the long-serving Bishop of Ferns, Dr Brendan Comiskey, and further undermining trust in the hierarchy.

The latest scandal, highlighted in a television documentary, added to the growing demands for the church to end its instinctive protection of clergymen accused of sex crimes and purge its ranks of those suspected of exploiting their privileged position in society.

Dr Comiskey's departure followed criticism of the way in which he handled child sex abuse allegations against Father Sean Fortune, a priest who committed suicide in 1999 shortly before he was due to stand trial on 29 charges of sexually assaulting young boys.

The bishop later admitted he had found Fr Fortune "almost impossible to deal with" but said he had "done his best" to deal with the affair although "clearly that was not good enough". Some of the allegations against the priest dated back to the 1970s when he worked at a south Belfast orphanage.

Announcing his decision to resign, Dr Comiskey apologised to four men whose cases were featured in the documentary and to "all who have been abused by priests of the diocese".

Another Irish cleric, the Bishop of Killaloe, Dr William Walsh, has called for an independent inquiry into how the Catholic Church handles cases of child sexual abuse. "We as bishops have lost some credibility in examining ourselves, examining what we have done," he admitted. " There is some sort of an instinct in us to always want to protect the church. If my own brother did something dreadful, my first instinct would be shield him, that is in all of us."

The Irish government announced last week it would launch an inquiry in the scandal surrounding Fr Fortune, but its attempt to set an example for the church in dealing with sex abuse cases was undermined within days by the extraordinary resignation of a government minister caught up in a similar scandal.

Earlier this week the republic's junior environment minister, Bobby Molloy, was forced to quit after it was revealed he had approached a judge in a case involving one of his constituents who was awaiting sentencing for raping a girl over a 10-year period.

More than 2,500 people have asked to give evidence to an official commission of inquiry in Dublin which is investigating child abuse in Irish state and religious institutions. The statements dated back to the 1950s and 1960s.

One of Ireland's most notorious cases involved Fr Brendan Smyth who was sentenced to 12 years for a total of 74 sexual assaults. His church superiors were said to have known about his behaviour in 1969.

The political fury stirred up by his case brought down the Irish government in 1994 when it emerged the Reynolds government had delayed extraditing him.