Ferns Report

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Ferns Report (2005) was an official Irish government inquiry into the allegations of clerical sexual abuse in the Irish Catholic Diocese of Ferns in County Wexford.

Contents

[edit] Scope

The Inquiry recorded its revulsion at the extent, severity and duration of the child sexual abuse perpetrated on children by priests acting under the aegis of the Diocese of Ferns. The investigation was established in the wake of the broadcast of a BBC Television documentary "Suing the Pope", which highlighted the case of Fr Seán Fortune, one of the most notorious clerical sexual offenders. The film followed Colm O'Gorman as he investigated the story of how Fortune was allowed to abuse him and countless other teenage boys.[1] O'Gorman, through One in Four, the organisation he founded to support women and men who have experienced sexual violence, successfully campaigned for the Ferns Inquiry.

The Ferns Report was presented to the Irish government on 25 October 2005 and released the following day. It identified more than 100 allegations of child sexual abuse made between 1962 and 2002 against twenty-one priests operating under the aegis of the Diocese of Ferns. Eleven of these individuals were alive in 2002. The nature of the response by the Church authorities in the Diocese of Ferns to allegations of child sexual abuse by priests operating under the aegis of the diocese had varied over the forty years to 2002.

Between 1960 and 1980, the Report found that Bishop Herlihy treated child sexual abuse by priests of his diocese exclusively as a moral problem. He transferred priests against whom allegations had been made, to a different post or a different diocese for a period of time but then returned them to their former position. By 1980, Bishop Herlihy recognised that there was a psychologicial or medical dimension to the issue of child sexual abuse. Some priests in respect of whom allegations had been made were sent to a psychologist. However, decisions by Bishop Herlihy to appoint to curacies priests against whom allegations had been made and in respect of whom a respected clerical psychologist had expressed his concerns in unambiguous terms as to their suitability to interact with young people.

[edit] Press Comment

According to reports in the Irish press, the report itself was not to be published on the Internet for legal reasons.[2]. A document claimed to be the text of the Report is, however, online, on the website of an organization called BishopAccountability.org.[3], and also on the website of an organisation called oneinfour.org. [4]

[edit] Oireachtas debates November 2005

The main Dáil debate on the Ferns Report was in two parts on 9 November 2005.[5] The Irish Senate debate started on 10 November.[6]


[edit] References

  1. ^ Suing the Pope BBC News
  2. ^ "Ferns Report highlights 100 cases", RTÉ News, Tuesday, 25 October 2005
  3. ^ Alleged text of The Ferns Report
  4. ^ Alleged text of The Ferns Report
  5. ^ Ferns Report online debate 2005
  6. ^ Senate debates online, 10 Nov 2005

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Languages