Irish Catholic
November 24, 2011
www.irishcatholic.ie/site/content/rte-breached-natural-justice-dillon-family
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The Irish family of deceased missionary Bro. Gerard Dillon has described RTE¨'s Prime Time programme 'A Mission to Prey' as 'utterly despicable' and a breach of natural justice, and have asked that their brother's name be cleared or proof be shown to back the single allegation.
'Mission to Prey' carried an accusation from a South African man, Mr Tyrone Selman, that he was abused by Bro. Dillon.
As Communications Minister Pat Rabitte announced that he had asked the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to carry out an independent inquiry into the Prime Time case, the family say that the research used in the programme "has already been exposed, as in the case of Fr Reynold's defamation, as appallingly incorrect, unsubstantiated, and profoundly prejudiced ... we believe that this is also the case with our deceased relative Bro. G.G. Dillon".
Prime Time wrongly accused Fr Kevin Reynolds of raping a minor and RTE¨ agreed last week to make a full apology and pay damages to Fr Reynolds.
The Dillon family claims that RTE¨ was 'casually indifferent' to them by not contacting them or the Christian Brothers in South Africa and have ignored their correspondence on this matter.
The Irish Catholic has discovered from other sources that the Prime Time programme did not contact the Christian Brothers in South Africa where Bro. Dillon was a missionary for 60 years and therefore did not seek to see the personnel file on Bro. Dillon or speak to those in charge.
The Irish province of Christian Brothers was only contacted the weekend before the programme and expressed concern to Prime Time that the Dillon family had not been contacted. Prime Time did try and contact a former South African brother living in Ireland but were not successful.
Allegations
The Irish Catholic has also discovered that RTE¨ has claimed to have two other allegations to back up the Dillon allegation but has not disclosed these sources and there is concern among the Christian Brothers that RTE¨ has not reported these allegations to the Christian Brothers or the South African authorities, a duty that the Church takes seriously under its own child protection guidelines.
Subsequent to the airing of the programme, the provincial of the Christian Brothers in South Africa did make email contact with the alleged victim of abuse who asked for no further contact but did stand over his allegation.
However, the files in South Africa and Ireland contain no evidence at all of any hint or allegation of wrong-doing by Bro. Dillon.
His family accuses RTE¨ of abusing power, just like the Church did in some cases, and says that just because Bro. Dillon is dead, doesn't mean he is not entitled to have his long life of loving service vindicated along with his reputation.
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