IRELAND
Irish Independent
THE Diocese of Ferns has made a settlement of more than €200,000 to a Catholic priest who was sexually abused while a student at St Peter's seminary in Wexford town.
The revelation is the latest to rock the diocese which is bracing itself for a damning report on the series of sex scandals to be published later this year.
The Irish Independent has learned that the payment was made earlier this year to a priest of the diocese who alleges he was abused by Fr Donal Collins, the former president of St Peter's, while he was a student there.
Fr Collins was sentenced to four years imprisonment, with three years suspended, by a court in 1999 for indecent assault and gross indecency on four boys. These episodes occurred in the 1970s. He served one year in prison and was dismissed by Pope John Paul II from the clerical state.