IRELAND
online.ie
2005-10-25 19:50:03+01
The Ferns Inquiry has cast a dark shadow over the seminary which produced almost all of the priests involved in cases of child sexual abuse in the diocese.
The inquiry found that in one random five-year period, St Peter's College, in Summerhill, Co Wexford had 10 priests who later became the subject of child sexual allegations.
They included the notorious Fr Sean Fortune, who was reported to have abused a schoolboy and boy scouts during his training at the college but was still ordained as a priest in 1979.
The inquiry report said the failure properly to monitor and assess men during seminary training, as well as the admission of some clearly unsuitable men to the priesthood, had extremely serious repercussions for the children exposed to these priests.