Birmingham Inquiry eagerly awaited

MORE than 100 victims of clerical sex abuse are expected to take part in a new inquiry into the Church's handling of complaints against clerical paedophiles in Co Wexford.

Pat Jackman, who was abused at the age of 15 by the now deceased Fr Sean Fortune, said he believes the Birmingham Inquiry will have to process a huge number of complaints.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it was to run into three figures,” Mr Jackman said.

The ground rules for the new inquiry are due to be unveiled by Mr George Birmingham SC within a fortnight.

Mr Birmingham was appointed in April by Health Minister Micheal Martin to examine what type of inquiry should be conducted into the Church’s handling of sex abuse cases in the diocese of Ferns.

Colm O’Gorman, who was also abused by Fr Fortune, said that he was in favour of a non-statutory inquiry, so that victims who did not wish to come forward would not be forced to do so, but with one proviso:

“If the inquiry’s work is hampered in any way by virtue of it’s non-statutory footing, if individuals or agencies are not co-operating, then we would want it referred back to the Minister immediately and made statutory.”

Both Mr Jackman and Mr O’Gorman want the inquiry limited to offending priests who served in the diocese of Ferns, but they want the handling of complaints in relation to those priests probed as far as Rome: “Complaints were made by parishioners aware of Fr Fortune’s activities to the then Papal Nuncio, Dr Gaetano Alibrandi. Cardinal Tomás O´ Fiaich was also informed. Dr Alibrandi wrote to those people telling them that their concerns had been made known in Rome.

“We want the inquiry to give a real template of how cases were handled by the Church right to the top, not just at diocesan level,” Mr O’Gorman said.

Mr O’Gorman, who is in regular contact with Mr Birmingham, said they also want the inquiry to be completed within a predetermined timeframe and an interim report of its findings published after six months. He wants the final report published publicly as fact and is hopeful that the inquiry proper will be up and running by September.

Mr Jackman said that they had confidence in Mr Birmingham to expose the Church’s past failures in dealing with complaints; that he had been very fair with the victims and had shown a lot of compassionate.