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	Pain of the Altar Boy Taught to Obey and Serve Priest By David Sharrock Herald November 27, 2009 http://www.herald.ie/national-news/pain-of-the-altar-boy-taught-to-obey-and-serve-priest-1956291.html Andrew Madden was proud to have been selected as Father Ivan Payne's gardener. The 12-year-old altar boy from Dublin, who had ambitions to become a priest himself, felt blessed. Yet on the very first day of his new duties, he was invited inside the parochial house to watch television, where Father Payne sat next to him on the sofa, put his arm around him -- then put his hand on the boy's crotch. Brought up in this Catholic country and taught to respect and obey the priesthood, the young Andrew was too frightened to stop the abuse. It continued for three years. Eventually, he confided in a schoolteacher, the bishop was informed and Payne admitted his guilt. The boy and his teacher were told that it was being taken care of and they heard no more. At 18 his application to study for the priesthood was turned down and for the next 13 years he drifted from job to job, falling into alcoholism. In 1993 he threatened to sue for compensation and received ?27,500 from the Church, which required him to sign a confidentiality deal. He wrote a memoir, but no publisher would touch it. Frustrated, he took his story to the newspapers and, even though he did not name Payne, who was still serving in a Dublin parish, the priest's name became common knowledge within the community. In 1998 Payne pleaded guilty to abusing children in three parishes and a children's hospital to which he had been moved by his superiors. For two decades of abuse involving 10 boys he was given a six-year sentence. Payne served four and a half years and was released in 2002, when the Church provided him with a Dublin flat and a weekly allowance. For Andrew Madden, yesterday's report was a vindication after years of campaigning for the truth. "Justice of a sort was done with Ivan Payne," he said. "I feel a lot of sadness that so many people were sexually abused by priests that the large Diocese of Dublin knew were paedophiles." Contact: hnews@herald.ie
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