‘Her reason for going forward was to protect other children’

Abuse victim: Kate's story

FOR Liam and Bridget, today is a extraordinarily poignant day. Their only daughter was a victim of Fr Ronat but has since passed away.

When they and their daughter met with Bishop John Magee to make their complaint, he told them he believed them — yet he failed to pass on the complaint to civil authorities and decided that no action would be taken against Fr Ronat. The accused priest remained on in ministry and over the years, allegations mounted against him.

“Bishop Magee was polite. He listened to us and that’s all he did. He listened to us but nothing else,” said Liam. “All I can say on Monsignor O’Callaghan is that he was a charlatan, a phoney.”

A couple with a profound faith, they and their daughter met with Bishop Magee twice in 1995 as Kate (not her real name) was consumed with worry that further children could suffer the same ordeal as her. After the first meeting, Bishop Magee took no action against Fr Ronat and after the second meeting a year later, nothing again. He did, however, then pass the complaint on to the then child protection delegate, Monsignor Denis O’Callaghan who failed to pass on the complaint to the civil authorities and decided Fr Ronat did not need to be removed from ministry. Monsignor O’Callaghan did, however, try to get a psychological report on Kate.

“For our daughter, her whole reason for going forward was to protect other children. It was her commitment to being Christian and it is our commitment to being Christian and that stands to this day,” said Liam.

“We didn’t ask the bishop for anything. Bishop Magee said to us ‘I’m happy that you’re telling the truth’. We didn’t ask him to do anything. There were two meetings and after the second meeting, there was no apology for doing nothing. The bishop’s reaction was that Monsignor O’Callaghan will contact you and liaise with you.”

Monsignor O’Callaghan never saw fit to meet face-to-face with Kate or her family. “He spoke to us on the phone. He used to speak to me. He didn’t want to speak to Kate,” said Liam.

“He told us then one day when we were on the phone that they had sent him [Ronat] away for counselling for three weeks and that he was fine, that he could go back into ministry. The diocese offered Kate counselling. She chose to attend a counsellor that we knew. The bishop then wanted her psychological notes. The counsellor said no way.”

Kate was a particularly bright young child, outgoing and popular “with such a sunny disposition”, her parents say.

“As a child, she was happy and carefree. She was the first grandchild and had all those trappings, the attention that goes with that. She did fine until Inter Cert but from then on didn’t reach her potential. We now know why,” said Liam.

Kate was tormented by her abuse. It took a toll on her mental health as she lived much of her life in fear and was unable to contemplate boyfriends. It took a number of years after school but she finally got to UCC where she studied English. Such was her ability that her lecturers wanted her to do a prestigious Masters in the US.

“When she did get to UCC she was so happy, so content and so able. And the thing about it is at the same time, she’d be afraid to walk from one side of the street to the other. She lived a life of hell,” said her father.

“We never knew the real extent of the abuse. We found out about it in a letter afterwards that we found. We couldn’t have imagined the horror, the pain that she went through. We saw her statement to gardaí but even that didn’t bring home the pain she had lived with and lived though.”

Liam and his wife admit to feeling very let down by “all the good priests” who hadn’t the courage to stand up to the prevailing culture of cover-up.

“There are many people who find it hard to divorce the Church from the whole abuse thing, from the hypocrisy. For us, it is the Church that we love and not the clergy. Not one priest came forward to help us and we’d have befriended many curates over the years. Some have come back to the house to chat to us but none have ever broached the subject,” he said.