BishopAccountability.org
	Ferns Report Will Stress Need to Strengthen Child Protection Irish Times [Ireland] October 25, 2005 The Ferns inquiry report, expected next Tuesday, will raise issues on the relationship between the Department of Education and church authorities over child abuse allegations. The State's child protection measures must be greatly strengthened, the report urges. Liam Reid, Martin Wall and Patsy McGarry report. It will highlight the lack of vetting procedures for school boards of management and will advise that Government reinforce mandatory reporting and other strict child protection measures. It is understood the 271-page report will be presented to the Cabinet on Tuesday by Minister of State for Health Brian Lenihan. It will not be circulated to Government Ministers in advance. Just four copies are extant and these are with Minister for Health Mary Harney, secretary general at the Department of Health Michael Scanlan, Mr Lenihan and Attorney General Rory Brady. Mr Lenihan will brief Wexford TDs and MEP Avril Doyle after the Cabinet meeting, while Bishop Eamonn Walsh, apostolic administrator of Ferns diocese, will hold a press conference in Wexford to respond. The report will disclose details of allegations made since the 1960s against 25-30 priests of the Ferns diocese, eight of whom are dead. Only those priests convicted in the courts, who are deceased, or against whom allegations are deemed proven, will be named. The inquiry received evidence from over 100 complainants who will not be named. The number of Ferns priests against whom allegations have been made in the report is believed to be the highest proportionally of accused priests in a Catholic diocese anywhere in the world. There are 148 priests in Ferns, 104 of whom are serving. Many accused Ferns priests continued to teach, give religious instruction to children, or act as school managers in primary and secondary schools, even after the diocese received allegations against them. Some were not removed from such posts until three years ago. It is also believed the report will be critical of the 17 bishop/trustees at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, in the early 1980s, for their handling of concerns expressed then by senior seminarians and by college dean Fr Gerard McGinnity about inappropriate behaviour by Dr Micheál Ledwith, later college president. But it is understood the report's findings from then are also more favourable to Dr Ledwith than expected.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.