IRELAND
Irish Independent
THE Irish Catholic hierarchy should apply to the Pope to have all of the 25 diocesan priests so far convicted of child sexual abuse dismissed from the clerical state, a victim support group leader said yesterday.
Mr Colm O'Gorman, head of the support group One in Four, reacting to the news, reported in yesterday's Irish Independent, that the Pope has 'sacked' two priests of the Ferns diocese following a request to do so from the acting Bishop of Ferns, Dr Eamonn Walsh.
Mr O'Gorman, who was a victim of the Ferns priest, the late Fr Sean Fortune, described the dismissal of the two priests as "an appropriate response that should be welcomed, although it comes 14 years after the sentencing of one of the priests".
He said: "I think where a priest has been convicted he should never again be [in the possession of] the authority he used as a way of abusing children in the past. This will mean laicisation in practice."
Posted by kshaw at December 17, 2004 05:18 AM