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	Deadline for Priests to Report Abuse By John Cooney Irish Independent October 13, 2006 http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1705447&issue_id=14759 An Ultimatum has been given to Dublin Catholic priests to report previously unrecorded allegations against child sex abusing clerics by today. This firm deadline was issued by the Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin in a blunt letter to parish priests and their assistants under the seal of confidentiality. In the letter sent late last month Dr Martin told priests belonging to the largest diocese in Ireland that they were required to disclose any documents in their possession, or on their parish files, about clerical sex abuse claims. The Archbishop stressed that these notes might be relevant to the work of the Government Commission of Inquiry which has begun its investigation under Circuit Court judge, Yvonne Murphy. Dr Martin also warned all Dublin priests that under the terms of the Commission's remit from the Dail they come under its category of 'church authority' which is legally obliged to hand over their files to Judge Murphy's Inquiry. But yesterday a spokesman for Archbishop Martin, the Rev Paul Tighe, declined to confirm the letter's existence. When asked to say if new evidence of unknown allegations had emerged as the result of the Archbishop's letter, Fr Tighe said again : "No comment." Details of the letter appear in today's Irish Catholic which reports that the Commission has widened its inquiry.
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