05 December 2005
By now most people in Ireland will have read extracts from the report on child sexual abuse in the diocese of Ferns. I have had the misfortune to have read the entire document before it was debated in Seanad Éireann. It is the most nauseating and appalling document of child sexual abuse I have ever seen and unfortunately I have seen many.
The report is nauseating (and I mean makes one feel like vomiting) because ordained priests, trusted by parents and their little children, for decades abused these children sexually sometimes while preparing the children for the sacrament of Holy Communion, a most important sacrament in all the Christian churches. It is appalling because the church authorities, the bishops of Ireland, knew it was going on and responded by moving these priests around and as long ago as 1988 taking out insurance in case they were sued by the victims, to protect the property of the church. There is little use in pointing out that sexual abusers of children come from all walks of life - priests are supposed to be special!
Members of the medical profession and other health care workers were less involved in the report than one would expect. In one particular case two doctors employed by the South Eastern Health Board appear to have done even more than is allowed by law. Ten girls preparing for Confirmation were individually brought up to the altar in a church were the priest had the zip of his trousers partially undone - their hands were held on his private parts while he licked their cheeks and ears etc. The other girls were told to sit in their pews, put their heads down and pray. The children subsequently complained to their school principal who alerted the Southern Health Board.
A doctor interviewed seven of these ten girls and felt their accounts were honest. The Director of Community Care was, under the Child Care Act 1991, only able to act further if a child was being abused within a family. The priest was eventually referred to a psychiatrist but the history given to that psychiatrist seems to have implied that the priest had exposed himself on the altar (which as far as I'm concerned would not have been half as bad).
Despite the complaints of those children and their parents, aided by a very courageous principal teacher, local Gardaí and two doctors from the Community Care section of the South East Health Board, this man was never brought to trial because the statements of the children were "lost" by one or other of two very senior Gardaí before they could be copied.
Frequently priests were referred to psychiatrists and psychologists both in Ireland and abroad with very inadequate histories so that the patient was in a position to mislead the psychiatrist. Alcohol abuse seems to have been the suggested reason for referral in many cases.
The Inquiry recommended that the shortcomings in relation to the ability of those involved in community care to intervene properly when child sexual abuse is perpetrated by a non-family member needs to be addressed and express statutory power to intervene should be given. In respect of this, the State should act at once by amending the Child Care Act 1991.
In some cases parents took children who complained of abuse by a priest to see their general practitioner. Some other complainants were referred by their bishop to their general practitioners. As far as one can see the general practitioners referred these cases to the Gardaí and prosecutions did or did not take place depending on the Director of Public Prosecutions. The Inquiry recommends that "child sexual abuse of any kind is a serious criminal offence" and that "children should be informed of and assured of support and care by State authorities when they make a complaint".
For three decades one Canon had sexual intercourse with adolescent girls in "his" school. One became pregnant aged fourteen, he swore her to secrecy and left their child three thousand pounds in his will to further her musical education. We know nothing of the girl's medical treatment during her pregnancy. We do not know if he had other children.
Do not think boys were left out. St Peter's College in Wexford must have been a place of torment for many of the boys who went there, the principal of the college for many years being a serial abuser. The rape of very young boys, some of them altar boys was another speciality of some priests. Several children reported going home bleeding afraid to say what had happened to them - one told his mother he had haemorrhoids! Some of these children as adults told their general practitioners.
It is very doubtful that Ferns has more paedophile priests than any other diocese - Dublin is just about to be investigated - but those who were abused there came forward first, hence for Ferns their day in the unwanted limelight. Television programmes made outside this country were important in exposing a scandal that had been going on for decades. The complainants who took part had the courage to realise that while they had been badly, probably permanently, damaged, they could make some effort to stop other children having a similar fate. The Church authorities were more interested in observing Vatican restrictions from permitting exposure of the scandal because that, of course, would be much worse.
The State's responsibilities regarding needed changes are clearly laid out by the Inquiry. When speaking on the debate in the Seanad the Minister or Children, Brian Lenihan said " I would like to see a culture of mandatory reporting being established but not on a legislative basis." His view was that complaints are more likely to come forward if this is the situation. Inter Agency Review Groups should be set up and the recording and maintaining of records should be the responsibility of the Health Service Executive. Civil Legal Aid should also be extended to all parties in these cases since the public interest is served by establishing the truth.
Senator Mary Henry, MD
