Report criticises bishop’s role in handling abuse

A woman who was abused for 10 years in the diocese of Clogher said he latest report from the Church’s child protection watchdog illustrates “how unsupportive” Bishop Joseph Duffy was to clerical abuse victims.

A report published yesterday by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church highlighted how, under Bishop Duffy, “opportunities for preventive interventions were consistently missed when concerns of abuse by clergy were highlighted in the past”.

Bishop Duffy led the diocese, which takes in most of Fermanagh and Monaghan and parts of Cavan, Leitrim, and Donegal, for about 30 years until he retired in 2010.

The NBSCCC revealed how, in this victim’s case, an unacceptable delay occurred in taking action against a priest and removing him from ministry, after receipt of a credible allegation.

In another case, a priest of the diocese was suspected of multiple incidents of abuse, but was not removed from ministry. He was transferred to another parish and later sent overseas for therapeutic help. He remained outside the jurisdiction and was extradited back to this country several years later but died before he could be brought before the courts.

According to the NBSCCC, the response to abuse complaints was “often unsatisfactory and that risky behaviour was not addressed as strongly as it should have been”.

One victim, who was paid a paltry sum of compensation by the diocese yet was refused an apology, said: “I was never listened to. They didn’t want to know. I still feel let down and hurt.

“By not giving me an apology, I feel they wanted me to be part of their cover up.”

Audits were carried out by the NBSCCC on the dioceses of Clogher, Elphin, Ferns, Waterford and Lismore, Galway, Kilmacduagh, Kilfenora, Killala, and on the Society of the African Missions.

In an interview with Galway Bay FM, Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan said “very little was known about child abuse until the late 1980s and early 1990s and that understanding [of] perpetrators and the effects of abuse took time”.

In Galway, the report found priests were removed from ministry promptly except for during Bishop Eamon Casey’s reign, when one case in the early 1980s was not handled seriously enough. Bishop McLoughlin eventually removed this priest, now deceased, from ministry in 1995.

In a separate case, Bishop McLoughlin’s response was found to be inadequate. He did not follow up on a complaint immediately and didn’t ensure protocol on being out of ministry was followed. This meant the accused priest assisted in funerals and appeared in public in full priest’s clothing.

The report also highlights too informal an approach in Galway to picking priest advisers, the men who offer support to the accused. In discussion with the board, it became clear two priests were not “appointed” as advisers but became support to friends removed from public ministry. They got no training and were uncomfortable with any monitoring role.