IRELAND
Irish Examiner
17/12/04
By Dan Collins
THE Irish Conference of Priests has welcomed the dismissal by the Pope of two members of the clergy convicted of sexual abuse.
The priests, James Doyle and Donal Collins, had worked in the Ferns diocese. Collins was given a four-year sentence in 1998, with three years then suspended, for incidents of sexual abuse against boys which took place in the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1990, Doyle was convicted of indecent assault on a teenage boy in 1990 and received a suspended sentence of one year.
Yesterday, Fr John Littleton, president of the Irish Conference of Priests, welcomed the “dismissal of the men from the clerical state”. It was not the first time that the Pope had taken this step. If priests misbehave seriously then serious disciplinary measures should be taken against them and it was a good means to protect children, said Fr Littleton.