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	Local Priest Speaks of Impact of Sex Abuse Report The Fermanagh Herald December 1, 2009 http://www.nwipp-newspapers.com/fh/free/296014963695341.php A CLOGHER diocesan priest who celebrates 40 years in the ministry next year accepted an invitation from the Herald to address the impact of the child sex abuse by clergy 'Murphy Report' which was released last Friday. Its authors, the Commission of Investigation, found not alone evidence of sex abuse by clergy in the Dublin Archdiocese but, also, cover-up by church authorities. The report took evidence from survivors and abusers. It said it was 'abundantly clear' that child sex abuse by clerics was widespread in the archdiocese throughout the 30-year period,1975-2004. Part two of the report detailed the cases of 46 individual priests against whom allegations were made. The complaints against them involved over 320 children, most of them boys. The Clogher diocesan priest celebrated Mass on Saturday, the day after publication, and spoke about the report. Did he feel nervous? - 'It wasn't easy to talk about it, but I did talk about it. The congregation were rather subdued. What I said was we first of all had to pray for the victims and the survivors, that God would give them strength and healing for all their hurts. "Secondly, I addressed the issue of priests who did this. I said it was, of course, such a breakdown of trust to damage innocent children in this way. I also said we had put systems in place to ensure that this could never happen again to children in our care." He went on: "The third point I addressed was to those in authority who acted irresponsibly in not protecting children from these people and allowing those abusers to continue in various places and moving them around. "This was highly irresponsible and inexcusable, as the report says." He was then invited to speak of the impact, on priests and lay people, of the report's revelations. "I think it has given us an awful lot to think and reflect about. I did tell them (the congregation) that the Catholic church in Ireland is definitely in a crisis and, so, there was a great need for soul searching and for some radical changes in the way it conducted its affairs, that it had to be accountable and transparent, that no longer could it go on the way it was going." Despite being taught mainly by priests, he never had a bad experience of priests in all that time as a student, nor did he hear rumours. "I was never aware that this practice was so very extensive or widespread, that there were so many paedophile priests in the Catholic church in Ireland. It causes us to ask a lot of questions: how did they manage to get through and continue it for so long, doing damage all the way? "It is an awful serious situation we are in. As I said, the congregation was rather subdued. This is obviously affecting everybody in the Catholic church very badly, this report and the reporting of it in the media, and rightly so. "I think that people are generally very concerned about it. I did finish off by asking them to pray for those priests who were trying to carry on in the present climate. We need prayers to keep going, and moral support, in this situation we are in. "We are in a very difficult situation. I never imagined it would come to this or be as acute." It was put to him that one columnist in a Sunday newspaper had referred to, 'a predatory church' and the Catholic church in Ireland being 'a paedophile club'. Replying, he said: "If there is such a thing, then it needs to be investigated. The numbers [of priests] mentioned in the Dublin archdiocese makes you wonder."
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