BishopAccountability.org
	Fortune Victim "Disgusted" at Suggestion That Parishes Pay Wexford People March 10, 2010 http://www.wexfordpeople.ie/news/fortune-victim-disgusted-at-suggestion-that-parishes-pay-2094648.html A COUNTY Wexford man who was abused by the late Fr. Sean Fortune has urged people to think long and hard before making any gesture to pay compensation bills facing the diocese. The man, who does not wish to be publicly identified but has given his name and address to this newspaper, said he experienced 'pure disgust' when he read about Bishop Brennan's proposal for financial help from the parishes. 'Maybe, just maybe, it would be better if the people of this country stood up and said enough was enough, that they weren't going to take any more, that the church caused this hurt and they alone should fix it', he said in a letter which he also sent to the Bishop. His own claim against the diocese was settled several years ago but no amount of money could compensate him for the damage that he suffered. He tried to suppress the abuse that he endured but his life eventually fell apart. His marriage and subsequent relationship broke up, he resorted to drink and drugs and spent a number of years in St. Senan's Psychiatric Hospital. Fr. Fortune, who took his own life before his case came to trial, raped him once or twice daily, three or even more times weekly, every week for many years. 'It is not as simple as saying, we accept you were raped, we are sorry that we let it happen but he is dead now and it's time to move on,' he said. 'My nightmares are still there. My life is destroyed beyond repair because of the shame he instilled in me and the feeling of being sub-human that he etched deeply into my heart and soul'. 'The Bishop and his colleagues have assured me time after time that changes were going to be made, that they were going to make every effort to right the wrongs of the past'. 'Then there was the debacle about the trip to the Vatican and the calls for resignations. Let me assure you, I have no interest in who resigns or doesn't. I am only interested in justice and trying to find my place in this world, to be able to walk down the street and not feel ashamed of my past'. He recalled when his case was being negotiated through solicitors. 'Not that the church's solicitors were trying to deny fault. Oh no, they were trying to keep the costs down to as little as possible'. 'I remember one day in particular, during this process. I was sitting talking to my broken-hearted sister who was trying to support me. She would ask me to tell her some of the things I had gone through but I would avoid answering her by flicking through the papers and distracting her with a trivial article. There before me in the sports section was a piece about the Vatican investing tens of millions in a European soccer team,' he said. 'I urge people to think long and hard before making any gesture towards paying these bills. 'Think about the innocent lives that have been ruined, the young men lying in graves because of what happened to them, the findings of the Birmingham Inquiry and the Ferns Inquiry that laid bare exactly what happened to little children at the hands of these monsters and the way it was all allowed to go on for so long.'
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