‘Bond of trust was broken so young I couldn’t trust anyone’

Abuse victim: Maria’s story

MARIA was repeatedly raped by a priest in the diocese of Cloyne from the age of 13 to 18. Her life has been derailed ever since she says — even though on the outside she looks like a normal, middle-class woman in her 40s. “I see what happened to me as being like dealing with a disease. You manage it from day to day but it’s hell. I am so disillusioned with everything. Can you believe it, they didn’t even have the decency, the Church or the commission, to send me a copy of the report? I was told that I would get all this support and I didn’t. I have yet to see the report properly myself,” she said at 6.30pm last night.

Among all the victims last night, there was anger that no one saw fit to courier copies of the report to Co Cork. While journalists and victim support groups had copies of the report, victims were still completely unaware of the commission’s findings. They were told late on Tuesday that they could have travelled to the Department of Justice yesterday but it was too late.

Again, too little, too late.

The Bishop of Cloyne and his senior clerics caused unending heartache to victims in their attitude to complaints, never reporting or delaying reporting them to gardaí. The HSE was never told. When Maria (not her real name) told gardaí herself, the Church stonewalled in interaction with her and other authorities.

When she told Monsignor O’Callaghan about what she endured as a teenager, she was told “there’s always the civil route”. On another occasion she said he patronisingly quipped: “My, my. How articulate we are.”

“They are a disgusting disease, that diocese... That man was a functioning pervert and they protected him all the way,” she said.

“I have always lived a double life since the first time he did that to me. It was a life of torment, silence and secrecy. And, it was this fear and secrecy that allowed him to keep doing what he was doing and them to cover it up. I feel as if my life went off on a horrible tangent from the moment it started... I’ve learned to live with it but the anger will always be there,” she said.

“I don’t think that any of us have lived up to our true potential. Our lives have been derailed and thwarted.”

The priest had an open friendship with the young girl but secretly she was being subjected to the most savage abuse. Locals where she lived used to refer to her as his “little friend” as he wanted to bring her everywhere with him.

Relationships have posed difficulties ever since, with trust a major issue for Maria. “For me the bond of trust was broken so young that it became practically impossible for me to trust anyone,” she says.

Maria made her complaint in 2005, telling Bishop Magee first, then the monsignor, and then both men together, in a specially organised meeting. Later that year she made a statement to gardaí.

Shortly after this Garda complaint was documented, Bishop Magee sent a letter to Monsignor O’Callaghan indicating that a policy of “minimal information” was to be adopted in relation to this case.

“Nothing was done. It was all just dawdling,” she said. “I was told at one point that he was on restricted ministry when I knew full well he wasn’t. It was all lies and more lies.

“My God, they had plans for a retirement party for him — even after my complaint — and were urging people to give money towards his retirement fund. I threatened to picket it.”

Maria claims that when he was supposedly on restricted ministry, he was in the US on holiday.

Maria’s case was not prosecuted by the DPP and a civil case was settled in recent years.