Calls for Resignation of Connell Rejected

Irish Times December 14, 2002 by Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent

Calls for the resignation of Cardinal Desmond Connell have been dismissed by the chairman of the independent advisory panel on child sexual abuse in the Dublin archdiocese, Mr David Kennedy. The calls followed the acceptance yesterday by Pope John Paul of the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston

In a brief statement last night Mr Kennedy said: "I do not believe that Cardinal Desmond Connell should resign. I do not know enough about the details of events in the Boston archdiocese to assess whether any comparisons with Dublin can be drawn.

"However, as chairman of the independent advisory panel for the Dublin archdiocese, set up in 1996 as part of the guidelines of the bishops' advisory committee on clerical sexual abuse, I can confirm that all substantive recommendations made since then by this independent panel on the handling of clerical sex-abuse cases in the Dublin archdiocese have been accepted in full by Cardinal Desmond Connell."

Calling for the Cardinal's resignation yesterday, Mr John Kelly, of Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA) said the circumstances of Cardinal Law's resignation were not dissimilar to the circumstances in which both Cardinal Murphy O'Connor and Cardinal Connell found themselves.

"It is clear both cardinals have lost the confidence of their flock. Furthermore, it is equally clear both cardinals failed to protect children from known religious paedophiles," he said.

Last night also Ms Marie Collins, who was abused by Dublin priest Father Paul McGennis, called on Cardinal Connell to resign as he had misled her at a 1996 meeting when she met him concerning her complaints against Father McGennis.

The Cardinal accused her of trying to ruin the priest's life over something that had happened nearly 40 years before (in 1960) and about whom there had not been one complaint since, he said.

It emerged subsequently that just 18 months beforehand complaints about Father McGennis's activities in Edenmore parish in Dublin had been reported to the archdiocese. He was also charged with abusing a girl in a Wicklow parish between 1977 and 1979 and sentenced. When Ms Collins pointed to this case the Cardinal, she said, indicated it did not count as the girl had gone to gardaí, not the archdiocese, with her complaints.

It was confirmed last night that to date the Dublin archdiocese has reached out-of court settlement with 26 people sexually abused as children by priests of the diocese and that negotiations are ongoing in "as many more", according to a spokesman.

The amount of money involved was not available. However, it is understood from other sources that approximately £320,000 was paid to victims abused by Father Ivan Payne alone, almost £30,000 of which was a loan by the archdiocese to Father Payne.

To date the Director of Public Prosecutions has brought charges against nine priests of the diocese, five of whom were convicted. Those were Father Payne, former priests Tony Walsh and Bill Carney, Father Frank McCourt, and Father Paul McGennis.

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