The Bishop: Church keeps mum over disgraced prelate

THE CATHOLIC Church is evading media questions about the current whereabouts of Dr Brendan Comiskey, who resigned as Bishop of Ferns in April 2002 after a BBC documentary on Fr Sean Fortune. Inquiries to the Ferns diocese are redirected to his Sacred Hearts of Jesus & Mary order, where copious messages go unanswered.

Once the ebullient, liberal face of the Irish hierarchy, Comiskey fell spectacularly from grace. His fellow bishops put it out that he was being treated for diabetes in 1995 when he took leave of absence to check into an American hospital for his alcoholism. Slowly, the facade crumbled. It was revealed that he owned a house in Donnybrook, Dublin, bought with diocesan money, which was subsequently repaid. It was also reported that he was held in a Bangkok police cell to allow him sober up after a holiday flight to Thailand.

But it was his failure to act in response to numerous complaints of child sexual abuse by priests in his diocese that was his undoing. Fr Fortune was known as "the barman" for serving drinks at parties in the Bishop's House. Fr Jim Grennan accompanied Comiskey into the same church where Grennan had abused 10 children three weeks previously. The evidence of negligence by the bishop become unanswerable, although he retains the title, Bishop Emeritus.

A bungalow controversially bought for him in Wexford by the Ferns diocese after his resignation has since been sold again and he is formally the responsibility of his order. He has spent some time in the US and has occasionally been seen in Wexford, in his home county of Monaghan and in the vicinity of the Four Courts, where he is named as a respondent in several victims' compensation claims. A total of €2.8m has been paid to 17 victims to date. Ferns has paid an average of €164,700 in each of the cases. In Dublin, by contrast, €2.5m had been paid out to 38 victims.

Justine McCarthy Irish Independent

Countdown to a scandal: how the evil unfolded

THE following is a chronology of the major events leading up to yesterday's report on the Ferns Inquiry.

* April 1984: Tens of thousands of parishoners line the streets of Wexford to welcome Brendan Comiskey when he is appointed Bishop of Ferns.
* Dec 1986: Waterford boy complains to Bishop of Ferns Brendan Comiskey about sexual abuse at hands of Fr Sean Fortune.
* 1987: Bishop Comiskey removes Fr Sean Fortune from duties at his parish at Fethard-on-Sea following complaints of Fr Fortune's behaviour.

- - - - He is sent to London to study communications and seek therapy.

* August 1988: Allegations of abuse first come to light when the South Eastern Health Board investigates complaints of sexual abuse by a priest in the Ferns Diocese from 10 young girls at a national school.

- - - - Bishop Comiskey fails to take action against the priest.

* 1989: Fr Fortune returns to Ireland as director of the Catholic media outlet, the National Association of Community Broadcasting where he is later accused of raping a 15-year-old boy in a studio booth where he recorded religious programmes.

* 1994: Fr Jim Grennan of the parish of Monagreen, Co Wexford, dies after successfully challenging the claims of a group of 10 and 11-year-old school girls that he abused them at the altar while they were preparing for their confirmations.

* March 1995: Victim of Fr Fortune, Colm O'Gorman, complains to gardai of the sexual abuse he encountered and gardai begin investigating Fortune.

* September 1995: As more allegations of abuse become public, Bishop Comiskey flees Ireland to undergo treatment for alcoholism in the US.

- - - - Several months later he is tracked down to a Florida clinic by journalist Veronica Guerin.

* November 1995: Fr Fortune is charged with 22 counts of gross indecency and indecent assault on six youths.

* 2 March 1999: Fr Fortune appears in Wexford Circuit Court where he pleads not guilty to 29 charges of sexual abuse against eight young males between June 1981 and December 1987 in Co Wexford.

- - - - After complaining of feeling weak and appearing to be fall asleep in court, he is remanded by Circuit Court Judge Joseph Matthews to the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum for psychiatric assessment. His lawyer tells the court Fr Fortune was on morphine and was unfit to plead. Due to a hospital strike he is not admitted but remanded to Mountjoy Prison.

* 8 March 1999: Fortune successfully applies for bail to the High Court and is freed by Judge Cyril Kelly on condition that he undergoes a medical examination and lives at his rented accomodation on Bewlewy St in New Ross and signs on at the local Garda station weekly.

- - - - He immediately barricades himself inside his home with steel shutters and installs an alarm and surveillance system and posts warning signs the home is under 24-hour surveillance.

* 14 March 1999: The body of Fr Fortune is discovered by a caretaker in his barricaded rental accomodation in New Ross by a caretaker. An autopsy later reveals he died from an overdose of drugs and alcohol.

* 15 March 1999: Fr Fortune is buried following his funeral in his hometown of Gorey. Former Ferns Bishop Brendan Comiskey flies back from America to celebrate the Mass which is attended by family, friends and 15 fellow priests.

* April 2002: The BBC airs its documentary Suing the Pope that details the sex abuse allegations in Ferns, primarily focussing on the abuses of Fr Fortune.

- - - - The programme generates such outrage that Bishop Brendan Comiskey resigns two weeks later.

* October 2002: Justice Minister Michaell McDowell announces he'll meet victims of clerical sex abuse to discuss the best way to investigate the allegations.

* March 2003: Health Minister Micheal Martin announces that retired Suprmeme Court Judge Frank Murphy will chair an inquiry into allegations of sex abuse within the Ferns diocese.

- - - - Up to 50 people who allege they were sexually abused by priests in the Diocese of Ferns are expected to give evidence.

* 9 April 2003: The Catholic Church admits for the first time its negligence in a sex abuse case - a move which had major implications for future cases taken by victims of clerical abuse.

- - - - Founder of the One in Four victim group, Colm O'Gorman, settles his High Court action against the Church on that date, receiving a settlement of €300,000 and an apology. Mr O'Gorman, who was abused by the late Fr Sean Fortune, said he hoped his case would mark and end to the adversarial approach taken by the Church in relation to victims of sexual abuse.

* Sept 2003: The first victim in the Ferns inquiry testifies.

* Nov 2004: Bishop of Ferns Eamonn Walsh announces that diocese funds are drying up after the church pays out almost €2.8m in compensation claims and legal costs.

* Dec 2004: Pope John Paul sacks two from priests from the Diocese of Ferns after they were found guilty of sex abuse. Fr Donal Collins and Fr James Doyle had both been convicted of sex abuse by the courts in 1998.

- - - - Donal Collins was given a four-year sentence in 1998, with three years being suspended, for indecent assault and gross indecency against teenage boys. In 1990 James Doyle was convicted of indecent assault on a teenage boy and given a suspended sentence of one year. The Catholic Church announces it is to set aside €50 million over the next 10 years to compensate sex abuse victims.

* October 2005: The report on the Ferns Non-Statutory Inquiry is released.

FEAR & LOATHING IN MARINO

College hit by staff crisis as second head walks out

TO lose one college head is unfortunate but to lose two and a couple of senior staff within a matter of months smacks of carelessness or worse. Teacher trainees returned to Colaiste Mhuire in Marino for classes this week only to find the college plunged into a series of new staffing problems. It's the last thing the college on Dublin's northside needs after the shock exit of director Caoimhe Mairtin in April. She and her Coiste Stiurtha (senior management committee) and staff had built up the college into a fine academic institution with over 500 students.

But clashes with the Christian Brother trustees and some members of the governing body resulted in her going to the High Court. On the eve of a full court hearing the Brothers agreed a €400,000 settlement for breach of contract, defamation and psychological abuse and bullying. Intensive discussions internally and with the Department of Education followed. They resulted in agreed terms of reference for a new college head which lecturer Gene Mehigan agreed to accept. The terms were agreed by the governing body on July 15 but within a month were unravelled.

A letter signed by all seven members of the management committee dated August 25 claims the terms of the July agreement had been breached. "This was exacerbated when Mr Mehigan was presented with a contract for the position in which the terms of reference were further disregarded. Therefore it was impossible for him to take up the position.

"This stance was taken with the full support of the Coiste Stiurtha because, in our view, the contract presented was not in the best interests of the college, both students and staff," added the letter sent to all staff.

WARNING

Last month 34 members of staff signed a letter to trustees expressing extreme dismay agreed terms of reference were not honoured. One of the signatories was Colm O'Leary, the director of Information Technology in the college who resigned last Friday and who is taking up a post with the new teaching council. In a letter to staff he said that he prevaricated for weeks on whether to stay or go but "what I witnessed at governing body over the past year was what finally pushed me to leave".

The same day Cora O'Farrell resigned as head of religious studies. A warning that other staff might leave was given in a letter send in mid-June to the Department of Education and Science by the chaplain Fr Liam MacRabhartaigh. In it he wrote how he was sickened and disillusioned at the way the leaders of the Christian Brothers had allowed the governing body to restructure the organisation. He added: "I doubt very seriously if their long-term plan for Marino is education." There is also annoyance at the dropping from the staff of Christian Brother Rory Geoghegan who has publicly criticised his own congregation for the way in which they have dealt with the concerns of academics.

He was told finally last month that he is no longer required to teach in the college and to date has not been assigned any new teaching role. The staff have signed a letter of total support for him. However, Pat Diggins, director of the Marino Institute of Education, insisted there is full co-operation from all staff and students..

John Walshe - Education Editor

IMAGINE - No code of ethics needed

Imagine practicing law in a land where there is no code of ethics, simply because it is not needed.
Imagine lawyers doubling as judges in order to keep the system moving

Imagine a system of law where parties do not confront witnesses and, where witnesses can telephone in their testimony

Imagine a system of law that is universal, whose subjects are found all over the world, in every culture.

This system of law is canon law.

Canon law is a body of law legislated by ecclesiastical authority to organize and govern the Catholic Church.

One thing that makes this system unique is that many baptized Christians do not know that these laws exist in relation to them. In order that a person be bound by canon law, four factors be bound by canon law, four factors must be present: One must be baptized; one must have the use of reason; one must have attained 7 years of age; and the law must be in force in the place where one is.

Therefore, in theory, the Catholic Church had jurisdiction over all baptized persons. A second unique factor is that this system of canon law comes under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The ultimate purpose of the system of canon law is to aid the Holy Spirit to work in and through the visible organization of the Catholic Church on Earth, to preach the message of Christ, and to administer His sacraments.

It was Pius X in 1904 who established a commission of cardinals to draft that first Code of Canon Law. That code was written in short articles called canons in much the same way as all modern states were codifying their legislation. On Pentecost Sunday, 1917, Pope Benedict XV finally promulgated the completed Codes Juris Canonici.

The Code itself consists of 1,752 canons or laws, divided into seven books. Book I is “The General Norms”, a long and dense recitation of the definitions of the basic legal principles and terms used in the rest of the Code. Book II, “People of God”, deals with who’s who and where they fit into the system, not to mention the basic rights of the people as guarantee by the Code. The third Book encompasses “The Teaching Office of the Church” and dictates the laws on mission work and Catholic education. This is the section that establishes the Pope as infallible, heretics as insufferable and university professors as tenable only if they are a Catholic in “good standing”.

Book V involves the area that most vexes civil attorneys. It is titled “The Temporal Goods of the Church.” This book rules the acquisition and administration of property and assets, as well as contracts and alienation of property. Because even the Church recognizes that money talks, it frequently finds itself with interests conflicting to civil parties, and even religious orders and lay people functioning within the Church.

Many find Book VI to be the most contemporarily provocative of the books in that it deals with sanctions in the Church. These run the gamut of actions from striking the Pope to aborting a baby. Within it there are outlines of penalties each as suspension from the office of the priest to excommunication of a lay person, or the firing of a Bishop.

The final Book VII, achieves the most difficult part of the legal system, the process by which all of the order aspired to by the system is maintained. Jurisdiction is observed, parties are defined and tribunals are established, along with rules of proofs and procedures.

It seems sad that those first Ten Commandments were not enough. With martyrs to be canonized and popes to elect, the Church’s need for law instantly became gnawing.

SOURCE

Church drops silence clause in sex payouts

Paige Taylor SOURCE The Australian

10 Oct 05

WHILE child migrants and other boys abused by the Christian Brothers have received a public apology, many victims were silenced by confidentiality clauses seeking to absolve the Catholic teaching order of liability. A deed of release between the Christian Brothers of Western Australia and a man whose former teacher was charged with abusing him reveals how the order continued to deny liability despite paying a "settlement" of $35,000.

Phillip Astone, 35, accepted his settlement on December 9, 2003 as part of a deed acknowledging his allegations he was sexually abused by a brother at a Perth school between 1980 and 1984. The deed also provided $5000 for counselling, but states: "nothing in this document constitutes an admission of liability." It states Mr Astone -- one of about 60 men to be compensated since 2002 -- would receive the money following a promise to keep the negotiations about his abuse "strictly confidential".

But the leader of the order in Western Australia and South Australia, Kevin Ryan, said it was no longer thought appropriate to stop victims speaking freely. He believed the confidentiality clauses -- which were standard in all deeds on legal advice -- had been dropped from recent agreements. "The critical issue is that it wasn't achieving anything, either for the person or for ourselves," he said. "Also, we want to continue to be seen to be dealing with this openly and transparently."

The agreements are made under a process called Towards Healing, which was adopted by the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference to "acknowledge with deep sadness and regret that a number of clergy and religions have abused children, adolescents and adults who have been in their pastoral care". Mr Astone conceded many people might question his credibility because -- since his settlement -- he had been charged with two counts of sexual assault.

He has pleaded not guilty. "A lot of people in my situation have got messy lives," he said. "They have been in jail, they have been addicted to drugs and, while it's not an excuse, I believe a lot of it is related directly to what happened to them as kids."