Tony Walsh, a former priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin was
sentenced today for the grievous sexual abuse of three people when they
were still only children.
My first thoughts go to these victims and
their families.
I hope that the finality of the legal process will help
bring them some sense of justice, of healing, of closure and hope for
the future.
Tony Walsh, however, abused many more
children, the numbers are truly shocking. For some of these he has
already served sentence.
He caused untold destruction in the lives of
numerous children.
Today’s news will sadly have re-ignited the ordeal
of many of his victims.
The Archdiocese of Dublin failed
these children.
It was too slow in recognising recognise that Tony
Walsh was a predatory paedophile.
When the extent of his paedophile
activity was identified this dangerous man was allowed to continue in
ministry for many years with the consequent damage visited on children.
We now know he may have been abusing children even during his seminary
formation.
He was finally dismissed from the priesthood on the
insistence of Cardinal Desmond Connell.
It was a tragedy however, that
Tony Walsh was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin and thus
had privileged access to children.
I can only unreservedly
apologise to the victims of this man for what they endured and for the
way in which the diocese failed them.
The
fact that Tony Walsh was allowed to minister as a priest long after his
paedophilia was identified is also a tragedy for good priests in Dublin
whose vocation and life’s work in the name of the Gospel was tarnished.
The
Archdiocese of Dublin is committed to doing everything possible to
ensure that no-one like Tony Walsh would ever be allowed to minister in
Dublin again. There is no room for compromise when dealing with
predatory paedophiles. There can be no going back on the robust child
safeguarding norms adopted by the Irish Church.
It is
crucial that any victims of abuse who have not received help talk to the
Gardai, or the HSE, to the Safeguarding and Child Protection Service of
the Archdiocese or to a counsellor or service of their choice.
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The Safeguarding and Child Protection service of the Archdiocese of Dublin can be contacted on 01 8360314 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 01 8360314 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
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