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THE DIOCESE OF Kerry has dealt with 67 allegations of abuse about 21 priests since 1975, the review by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCCI) reveals.
All 67 have now been reported to the gardaí and the HSE. There has been just one conviction.
Of the 21 priests accused of sexual offences, eight are still alive and one is still in ministry. Another is out of ministry but still a member of the diocese, while another is retired. Five have left the priesthood – four were laicised and one was dismissed through an application to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome.
The NBSCCCI said the priest who is still in ministry was investigated and all safeguarding issues addressed.
The body apologised to one priest who was falsely accused of sexual abuse. It noted:
The NBSCCCI received notification of a complaint against this priest and misunderstood the complaint to relate to sexual abuse when the complaint which was subsequently determined to be unfounded, had related to psychological abuse only.
The NBSCCCI acknowledges that this priest was entirely innocent of any such accusations and he was caus ed to suffer further unnecessary stress and anxiety as a result of this misunderstanding. His good name and character were eventually restored when the person who made the allegations made a public admission in the High Court that the allegations were fabricated and without foundation.
The board said that there was one case which caused it concern involving a priest who requested dismissal from the clerical state. He then moved to another part of the country where he took up a job in which he would have contact with children.
Four complaints have since been made against the man about alleged sexual abuse of children who were in care in a children’s home in county Kerry in the 1970s.
The board expects more allegations to be made against another priest who has passed away. At the time of the review, there were 25 allegations against the accused who had access to all Catholic primary schools because of his role as Diocesan Inspector. His abuse was perpetrated in the 1950s and 1960s.
A third case mentioned in the review highlighted an absence of communication between bishops in Ireland and overseas.
The priest moved to the Kerry area but insufficient information was provided by an overseas diocesan bishop about the reasons for his not ministering. Records indicate he abused a large number of boys in primary school in the parish where he was working.
“As a result of a lack of clear communication, he was allowed by a previous Bishop of Kerry to provide cover for parishes where priests were on holidays,” the reviewers found. The issue was rectified by the current Bishop of Kerry who refused permissions to the priest
Reviewers found that “in general” cases of clerical child sexual abuse in Kerry have been “appropriately managed” with improved practices evident since 1996.
Communicating a message
The review found a “genuine commitment” from the diocese in wanting victims to come forward to receive support and help. Local and online media have been used to communicate an invitation to the review process and a real concern for victims was demonstrated.
However, some work on victim outreach is still required and a review of a certain case involving two priests was recommended.
The board made eight recommendations for the new Bishop of Kerry.
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how many more met eirenn complaint stories are ye gonna do?!
“Commenter rumbles weather conspiracy!”
met eireann must not be voting fg in next election
Any possibility that you might do a story on how often RTE , either don’t Report The News at all , or Report it inaccurately – so as to suit it’s Editors Political Agenda – which is clearly controlled by Lab. / FG Acolytes ???
what possessed the journal to conduct an investigation into complaints against met eireann? Bizarre.
Steal our jobs? Wait, I thought they were tryin to steal our benefits?
Here we go… The bould diarmuid couldn’t even let an article about the weather go without his/her/it’s usual bile. Do yourself a favour and get out and meet some real people.
Jees Mikey, whatever I did to you in a past life, I am truly sorry
dey tuk err jeobs
Jeez man,just lighten up a bit. you are really a great poster and you make a great point but you loose it with your shinner this and shinner that and your swipes. Chill out man and allow us to actually enjoy your posts. We might not agree politically but in fairness you are a great poster.
Deeeeeer tuk rrrrrrrrrr jooooorbs!!
shut thr f $#k up
Cue the hilariously funny lines we have never heard before (!) and then the Father Ted references and youtube links ……
Wearisome.
“I am disgusted with the way old people are depicted on television. We’re not all vibrant, fun-loving sex maniacs. Many of us are bitter, resentful individuals, who remember the good old days when entertainment was bland and inoffensive.”
She’s pointing it out to the endless amounts of Non Nationals who dont have a clue
Non nationals…..that have had to find Ireland to get here. So they probably already know where it is.
Yeah, if they were navigating by map and an astrolabe.
RTE preparing for the invasion?
To be fair, I think the arrow is there to indicate where Ireland is when the satellite pics show cloud cover that obscures the green bit underneath. I’m guessing that they were taken by surprise by a cloud free day and forgot to take off the arrow.
At last, a logical comment.
I’m not sure, you’d think that the lads in the satellite would already know where Ireland is.
Also, people with poor geography knowledge pay the same TV license fee as everybody else.
If this all some people have to complain about they not only have too much time on their hand but also must have a stress free life
Stress ours one of those things everyone has a certain capacity for. If someone doesn’t have much to occupy them then trivial sh!te will expand to fill that capacity.
Talk to Joe 1850 715 815 the liveline is open
The complaints probably came from thejournal staff. Anything to squeeze another article out this story :-)
Average age of complainant- 97 years old.
Its for all the Unionists partitionists here who think Ireland is still part of UK or wish it were.
The country going down.lol
Some people are always whinging and will never be satisfied, it’s plainly obvious that the arrow is indicating the direction of the wind
Look at it again – the big blue arrows are showing the wind direction. Maybe we are a nation of morons after all
Good man Charles :)
In fairness we don’t need the weather forecast it rains 360 days a year.
Only in Shitty Donegal!!!
Get a life seriously
What I want to know is WHY they choose to point out Ireland?
the weather report on rte is usually wrong anyway, but its true that they have an annoying habit of talking down to people, treating them like their idiots.
Its Joan Blackburn herself. I can’t bear her
She talks to us
I’ve we just came out of a cave for the first time
Me father loves her so I rile him up every time she’s on.
He got Sky plus cos I always interrupted her !!
Love the Simpson reference
It says Ireland when pointing to Derry, lol.
Most RTE staff are West Brits.
They know exactly where Prince Harry or Prince Charles are at any one time but they cannot place where Ireland is on a map of the world.
If the moron who made that complaint had enough brain cells to figure out the context of the “Ireland Arrow”, they might have noticed that a few seconds earlier, the entire country and much of the UK was covered in rainfall, and was thus hidden.
If anyone from Met Éireann happens to see this, please give me a job as a complaints responder. I will soon shut these muppets up, I’ll even do it for free!
Also, perhaps the journal could bang in a FOI request to see how much they spend on bogroll in the last year, we are dying to know. You could milk the bejaysus out of that for a week too!
Time for fresh new faces,,….Helen.
where do people get the time to be offended
For me I love the word choices by the presenters:
- “risk of thunder” — exactly what is the risk? “chance of thunder”?
- “warning in operation” — how do you operate a warning?
- “maxima” or “minima” — what’s wrong with plain English – high and low?
- “values” — temperatures?
Great rant
Not this again !!
aa
Some people obviously have way too much time on their hands.
It may look silly you be surprise how many people in digital world now that people can rte almost anywhere that don’t know we are not part of uk and we are island of our own how many times have been abroad because you speak the English language (no disrespect to uk)they think your from uk how often in Spain do you see Irish flag on menus never
have your say