VICTIMS: PRAYERS WERE said for the victims of jailed former priest Tony Walsh at Mass on Sunday last in Ballyfermot, Dublin.
At
Our Lady of Assumption Church on Kylemore Road, parish priest Fr
Michael O’Kelly asked the congregation to pray for all those affected by
the revelations earlier in the week.
Chapter 19 of the Murphy
report into child sexual abuse in the Dublin diocese relating to Walsh
was finally published last Friday.
Its publication was approved
after the former priest, who was previously jailed for sexually abusing
six boys, was sentenced to 16 years for abusing a further three victims.
Many of his victims were abused while he worked in Ballyfermot parish from 1978 to 1985.
The
atmosphere in Our Lady of Assumption Church yesterday was subdued as
people continued to come to terms with the details contained in the
Murphy report.
The sparse congregation prayed for Walsh’s victims
and written extracts from a homily given by Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid
Martin on the subject of Walsh were made available.
Archbishop
Martin had spoken at the church on December 12th in advance of the
publication of chapter 19 and apologised to the people of the parish.
Speaking
after Mass, Fr O’Kelly said people were deeply shocked by how extensive
the abuse had been and particularly that it went back so far, to
“literally two days after he was appointed” at the parish.
“People
knew what had happened; they didn’t perhaps know the detail or the
extent of it, but they knew something dreadful happened so everyone was
bracing themselves,” he said.
The congregation was subdued because
“in the end of the day there is nothing we can say that will help;
words can seem so empty”.
“Our first thoughts are for the victims
and what we’ve just heard. Their desire was to be heard and to be
believed, that was the most important thing that they wanted from all of
this.”
He hoped that to some extent, the publication would bring healing to those people who were terribly affected.
SIC: IT/IE