Vatican wanted paedophile to serve 10 years in monastery

THE Vatican wanted paedophile priest Tony Walsh to serve 10 years in a monastery rather than force him out of the Church.

The Irish Church hierarchy wanted to dismiss Tony Walsh, but Rome urged that he be allowed to remain in the clergy.

Pope John Paul II dismissed Walsh in 1996 after a direct appeal for action by Cardinal Desmond Connell. Dublin-based clergy investigated Walsh in the early 1990s and asked Rome to laicise him in 1993. Walsh appealed in October 1993 and the Vatican called for the penalty to be reduced in June 1994. The Pope was asked to intervene after the attack on the boy in a pub.