Support group flooded by calls
The One In Four victims support group, set up to assist those abused by Fr Sean Fortune and other priests of the Ferns diocese, is now getting calls for help from all over the country.
Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell said yesterday he would be taking into consideration the likelihood that similar complaints would surface elsewhere in deciding what form a State inquiry into the Dublin archdiocese would take.
He said the terms of any inquiry would have to have flexibility to cope with issues that arose outside Dublin and this was one of the reasons the matter required further reflection.
Colm O’Gorman, director of One in Four, said he was disturbed but not surprised by the number of calls coming from around the country.
“I wish I could say that one diocese stood out because then it would mean they weren’t all as bad as each other but I am not aware of a diocese that we have not heard something from,” he said.
“Every single time in the last 10 or 15 years we thought we had dealt with this, something else has cropped up. We have to be prepared for the fact that there’s more to come.”
He said 27% (the statistic that gives rise to the One In Four title) of children would be abused at some stage in their childhood so what was known so far was only the tip of the iceberg.
Mr O’Gorman established One In Four in Britain where he lives but he said an Irish national office based in Dublin would be up and running within a matter of weeks.
The office would offer information, advice, support and counselling to victims. The scale of the problem of paedophile priests outside Dublin and Ferns was not easily quantifiable yesterday.
A spokeswoman for the Irish Bishops Conference said statistics on compensation claims and prosecutions against abuser priests were not compiled centrally but were held by each diocese.
“Each diocese is independent and is answerable directly to Rome,” said the spokeswoman.
