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	Church Negligent, Says Abuse Victim Pervert Priest 'Could Have Been Stopped' By Claire Regan Belfast Telegraph [Northern Ireland] October 26, 2005 A Belfast man who was sexually abused by the notorious paedophile priest at the centre of a damning report into the horror of clerical child abuse in the Diocese of Ferns in the Republic, today branded the Catholic Church as "negligent and irresponsible". Damien McAleenan said Fr Sean Fortune may have been prevented from moving on to abuse more victims in the Co Wexford diocese if two allegations of sexual abuse made against him while in south Belfast had been treated differently by the Catholic Church. The 39-year-old, who met the pervert cleric when he was an altar boy at Holy Rosary Parish on the Ormeau Road, spoke out after the Republic government's probe into the activities of pervert priests in the diocese of Ferns over a 40-year period. Former Supreme Court Judge Frank Murphy's damning report found that the church lied, deceived and covered up to protect 21 priests in the diocese who had faced more than 100 allegations of child sexual abuse. "The church's handling of this whole situation was negligent and irresponsible. "They brushed it under the table and kept brushing," Mr McAleenan said. "Fortune was a cause for concern practically from the day he was ordained, and nothing was done for more than 25 years. He could have been stopped a lot earlier." Catholic bishops were today considering the fall-out of the damning report. Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, Dr Sean Brady, apologised to "all those people who have suffered lasting hurt at the hands of abusers in the church". The leading Catholic cleric said he was "deeply shocked and saddened". "As priests they should have been protecting and nurturing the talents of these young people," Dr Brady said. And the Bishop of Derry, Dr Seamus Hegarty, is expected to release a "significant" statement on clerical sex abuse in his diocese within days - possibly as early as tomorrow - with the aim of allaying fears. Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor, Donal McKeown, said he was shocked and horrified by the Murphy report's findings. In the Republic, administrator of the Diocese of Ferns, Bishop Eamonn Walsh, welcomed the report and said he accepted and acknowledged its findings. He said the church "unreservedly and sincerely apologised to all who have suffered abuse". Paedophile Fr Sean Fortune, who served in the Holy Rosary Parish in south Belfast for less than a year in 1979, faced 40 allegations of sexual abuse from his time in Ferns. According to the explosive report, Fortune, who committed suicide in 1999, was judged "unfit" for the priesthood by a Catholic Church psychiatrist but was ordained anyway. Shortly after his ordination, he was sent as a curate to south Belfast where he was asked to leave less than a year later when concerns were raised about his bullying and difficult nature. It emerged later that three people from Belfast, including Mr McAleenan, made serious abuse complaints against Fortune dating from 1979. Following the accusations Fortune was investigated during an RUC inquiry into clerical abuse.
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