IRELAND
Billings Gazette
Associated Press
DUBLIN, Ireland - Pope John Paul II has defrocked two priests convicted of sexually abusing children in Ireland, an unprecedented move in this predominantly Catholic nation, church officials confirmed Thursday.
"The diocese confirms that two priests, previously convicted of child sexual abuse, have been dismissed from the clerical state," said the Rev. John Carroll, spokesman for Ireland's southeast Ferns Diocese, which has been hard hit by sex abuse scandals.
The church declined to identify either man, but only two priests from the Ferns diocese have been convicted of such abuse: James Doyle and Donal Collins. Collins received a four-year sentence in 1998 for abusing several boys; Doyle received a one-year suspended sentence in 1990 for abusing one boy. The church rarely defrocks priests, even those found guilty of crimes, and the decision was the first time the Vatican has dismissed a priest in Ireland over sexual abuse.
In this case, Ferns Bishop Eamonn Walsh sent a file to the Vatican requesting the two men's dismissal, a request granted last month by the pope in what Carroll called "a supreme decision" that cannot be appealed.