ENGLISH SCRIPT CLERICAL ABUSE IN IRELAND Colm O'Gorman: These scandals have been going on in Ireland now for about 16 years or more and they haven't been dealt with. And every day they church shames itself further and exposes its failures and exposes its ongoing inability to understand its responsability to be honest, to tell the truth. To do what's right. Voice over: It's St. Patricks Day in the Irish town of Wexford. Originally a catholic rite celebrating the Holy Saint of Ireland, the day has now been adopted as a national holiday. And the religious processions of the past, ousted for riotous merrymaking. In these times where headlines are full of stories of gross clerical abuse, the authority of the Catholic church is no longer so untouchable. visitor parade: I feel very very sad about the condition of the church. Because now there's that element of doubt . When you were talking to a priest... Sometimes you think, you know, things you shouldn't be thinking when you're talking to a priest. So there's that element of doubt . Voice over: It all started in the diocese of Ferns when Colm O'Gorman made a statement to the police. As a boy he had been raped by a priest for years. In 1995 he finally broke the silence. Colm O'Gorman: When I reported it to the police I thought it was just me. I thought he had done this to me and that was it. But I was worried that he might be doing it to somebody else. But very quickly within weeks 5 other men who were boys at the time were abused and raped by him came forward. And within months I started to hear suggestions that the church had known about him. And very quickly it became clear that the Vatican also had received complains about the priest who abused me. And then it seemed obvious that if we wanted to get to the truth we had to go to the Vatican. So therefore it made sense to sue the pope. So by 1998 that had become clear that that was the thing to do. The first time I considered it it seemed proposterous, it seemed ridiculous, to sue the pope. I mean this is crazy. But the truth said this was the right thing to do. The questions that needed to be answered said we need to ask these questions and find out the answers. Voice over: And finally Colm got answers. His case led to the introduction of ‘The Fern’s Inquiry, the first investigation on clerical abuse performed by the Irish government. Slowly but steadily, more and more cases were exposed. And it became clear that the church knew about the majority of them. After years and years of legal action, Colm received compensation. But it’s was the questioning attitude that his case sparked, which was to be his legacy. People were arrested, bishops forced to resign; the man who raped Colm was exposed as a notorious paedophile, who later commited suicide in prison. Yet the stream of clerical scandals hasn’t stopped. Shane Dunphy: I was one of the investigators in the Ferns Inquiry, In interviewed a number of the clerical abusers here in Wexford. I handed over information that never came to light in the inquiry because for legal reasons they were not able to bring that information to light. Which bothered me a great deal. Voice over: Shane Dunphy is a teacher and a child protection expert. He is furious about the way the church has treated the victims and systematically refused to tell the truth. Recently the diocese of Ferns asked her parishioners to donate money to assist the church in footing a bill. Shane Dunphy: I just couldn't believe it. My sense of outrage was stirred up to such an extend that I really couldn't remain quiet. So I asked the 'Irish Independent' if I could write a piece. Just a kind of...I suppose responding to that as someone who'd grown up in this area who had seen some of the awful things that had happened . Voice over Shane grew up in a very religious family. He has never been abused but nevertheless the recent exposures have affected him deeply. Shane Dunphy: I did know many of my friends were sexually abused. For example one of the years when I went to school, the school was actually in the local church. One of the priests came in and handpicked a group of boys to assist him at mass. And one of these boys would come back every day after he'd served mass in tears. And he would come into the room crying, really upset. Sit at the back of the room. And I just assumed that he was not a very skilled altarserver. And he got slapped. But it went on for the whole year that we were there and the teacher never aksed him. And somehow none of us ever asked him neither. Then many years later I discovered, when that particular priest was prosecuted as a clerical abuser, that he must have been sexually abusing this boy. That made me feel appalling when I realised that none of us had ever said a word . Voice over: The catholic church is Ireland was almighty. And the priests orchestrated daily life. At boarding schools, orphanages, and hospitals. It took the investigators for the government Inquiry years to map out the whole picture. To date, compensation has been paid to 12.000 people, but every day new tales of abuse come from old victims. Colm O'Gorman: The man, who happened to be a priest, who for 3 years nearly sexually assaulted and raped me is responsible for his indivual actions himself. So I don't blame the pope or a bishop for the fact that this man chose to do these things. But what I do hold them responsible for and what they need to accept the responsiblity for, is the fact that they permitted him to. That they empowered him to have acces to children. And they failed to respond to complaints, or concerns or pleas, from his victims, from his parishioners, and from other people who were concerned about his conduct. The Vatican knew that there were concerns. And chose not to do anything. And if you put together the fact that they knew these concerns existed, with the fact that the bisshops knew, he had assaulted children before he was ordained. All they had to do was to ask the question. All they had to do was to use the information that they had available to them.and prevent him from harming others. And they didn't. They didn't, not because they didn't understand, or because they didn't know. that such things were possible. They didn't because they knew that if this ever came out that would damage their reputation and would cost them money. So in the interest of their wealth , their position, their power, their money, they chose to ignore this and allow me and countless other children to be raped and abused. And they devastated lives. Voice over: The catholic church in Ireland has closed a deal with the Irish government. A large part of the clerical abuse claims is now being paid by the taxpayers, a huge mistake according to solicitor Vincent Shannon, who has plead for a lot of these victims causes. Vincent Shannon: The Irish government made a huge mistake . They said to the church authorities a couple of years ago: we will put a cap or a limit on the amount of money that you'll have to pay. And I think the amount was 120 million. Now they find the amount has risen to 1 billion euro and the church only has to pay a tenth of that. So people are saying: why is the taxpayer paying for the abuse of the religious? Voice over: Today, Shannon warns victims in other countries of the ways in which the Church is able to protect itself, citing how the Catholic Church withheld important documents from the investigators. Vincent Shannon: The church was refusing to release the records. They said they were secret and under canon law they can't reveal them. So it took 6 years for us to get the files from the church. Voice over: His belief? That the government, not the church, should install a commission to investigate clerical abuse along with a rigid policy on the treatment of victims. Vincent Shannon: I would suggest that the government should set up an independent commission with lawyers and medical experts and they should decide the level of compensation for each person. Colm O'Gorman: Believe me, the church will not tell the truth. The church will not share documents, the church will not cooperate fully with inquiries. It will promise that it will. It will promise to put in place independent inquiries. How can the catholic church put in place an independent inquiry in itself? This is a nonsense. Dutch politicians must speak. But more importantly than speaking, they must act. They must investigate , they must establish the truth [cut this] Believe me, there was in Dutch dioceses , just like there were in Irish dioceses and in American dioceses and in catholic dioceses across the world, there were deliberate, cold, clinical decisions made to cover up these crimes. To swear victims to secrecy and prevent the crimes from being reported to the police. Shane Dunphy: I have to tell you that I miss the church. It's a strange thing to admit, but I really do miss the church. I miss the magic of it, I miss the sense of togetherness, I miss the ritual of prayer with my community. And I miss that a great deal. And I feel very angry that they have taken that away. Not just for me, but for other rightminded people. Visitor parade: If I'm filling out a form for a job and it would say religion. Roman-Catholic would probably not the thing to put down. That's how bad I feel about it.