US: Two US victims of sex abuse by a former priest from Limerick have submitted a letter to the Vatican requesting a meeting with the pope and urging him to apologise to all such victims.
Fr Thomas Doyle, a Dominican priest and long-time advocate for abuse victims, accompanied Ann Jyono and Nancy Sloan yesterday in delivering the letter, which also asked Pope Benedict to dismiss officials involved in abuse cover-ups and that bishops be instructed to co-operate with investigations.
On Friday Fr Doyle, the first US whistle-blower on clerical child sex abuse, will speak at All Hallows College, Dublin, at 8pm and on Sunday at 3pm he will be at the Tower Hotel, Derry.
Ms Jyono and Ms Sloan are two victims of defrocked priest Oliver O'Grady, who admitted to molesting 25 children while a parish priest in California. He served seven years in prison for abusing two boys and was deported to Ireland in 2001. He lives in Dublin. The Vatican made no comment on the letter.
Earlier this month lawyers representing US clerical abuse victims said they might initiate multi-million-dollar lawsuits against Irish dioceses which trained such priests. They said that if a test case against the archdiocese of Cashel and Emly was successful, other cases would follow.
O'Grady, who is the subject of 17 multimillion-dollar lawsuits in the US, was trained at St Patrick's College, Thurles, in Cashel and Emly. It was disclosed recently that 18 Irish priests face abuse charges in California.
Fr Doyle said yesterday: "I've often said that it's [ sex abuse] soul murder. Their souls are taken away from them by the priests that do it, but what makes it worse is the way they are treated by their bishops."
Ms Jyono said: "Until they acknowledge us and help us to weed out the bad people in the church . . . how can I heal?" She added: "I want my faith back but I need their help."
Ms Sloan said she had sought an audience with the pope to ask him to instruct US bishops to disclose documents on abuse cases and to meet victims.
Fr Doyle said he had little hope their letter would have an impact.
US dioceses are estimated to have paid out more than €1 billion in settlements and other costs involving clerical child sex abuse since 1950, concerning more than 11,500 claims.