CLONFERT:THE BISHOP of Clonfert Dr John Kirby has said it never occurred to him that he should consider resigning after it emerged that he had moved two priests at the centre of child sex abuse allegations to other parishes in the 1990s.
He also dismissed a suggestion that it was unwritten church policy in the early 1990s to move priests suspected of abusing children to other parishes rather than report them to the Garda.
Dr Kirby (73) said he “hadn’t a clue” about how paedophiles operated 20 years ago and thought that it was a case of “a friendship that crossed a boundary line”.
Dr Kirby, who has been bishop of Clonfert since 1988, said he would handle matters differently now if complaints emerged about a priest and, while he felt moving the suspected priests to other parishes might solve the problem, he denied it was church policy at the time.
“I think that is unfair presumption on the part of people. I literally thought, and you can put it down as gross innocence and naivety, that if I separated the priest and the youngster that it was a friendship that crossed the boundary line.
“I literally thought that if I separated them I would have solved the problem. I was not aware that youngster was part of a group and that there were people before him and after him,” he said.
Nine allegations were made against two priests in the early 1990s. One of the priests was convicted and served a jail sentence but the other was not prosecuted as the victims declined to make statements to the Garda. The third priest involved was dead for more than four decades when allegations were made against him. That investigation is ongoing.
The report on Clonfert was critical of the shortcomings in safeguarding structures and practices in the diocese. It stated that when the review was carried out last November, the diocese did not have a full written policy and procedures document in place. Dr Kirby said this had now been rectified.
The report recommends that Dr Kirby divest himself of the responsibility for dealing with allegations alone, by ensuring all new allegations are referred to designated persons.
It noted that the Clonfert diocese safeguarding committee was established in 2007 but was suspended a year later. It was reactivated in 2009 but in May 2010, there was “a difference of approach” which led to a dispute between Dr Kirby and five members.
“It is to be regretted that this situation arose,” the report added.
After the report was published, Dr Kirby said he reported the allegations to the Western Health Board and presumed it would report them to the other “civil authorities”, including the Garda.
The bishop, whose diocese is one of the smallest in the country with a Catholic population of 36,000 in 26 parishes in Galway, Roscommon and Offaly, said if he reacted now as he did when the cases occurred, he “would be gone in the morning”.
“It did not occur to me [to resign]. Times were very different. It was 1990 in the first case and 1994 was the second. There were no guidelines available at that time.”
Dr Kirby said the priests at the centre at the sex abuse allegations were not monitored when they were moved to other parishes.
“It would be dishonest of me to say that there was monitoring. There was wishful thinking. Both were removed from ministry but not as quickly perhaps as it should have been, but both were removed from ministry.
“I’m in the fortunate position that no new allegations were made against these priests in their new parishes. I did not consider my position at the time because there were no official guidelines available to the church at that stage.
“I now know that the whole issue of child sexual abuse is compulsive and addictive and that my response was grossly inadequate,” he added. The bishop apologised to victims and their families “for my own previous lack of understanding of the sinister and recidivist nature of the child abuser, and the lifelong damage that this destructive behaviour has on victims.
“Most of all – whilst I did notify the civil authorities at the time of these complaints – I profoundly regret and apologise for moving the priests concerned to different parishes thereby placing others at serious risk,” he added.
Dr Kirby said he was now confident that the necessary safety measures were in place in his diocese.