NEW ALLEGATIONS OF ABUSE EMERGE FOR IRISH PRIEST WHO FLED UNITED STATES

By Emer Scully
Extra.ie
November 19, 2018

https://bit.ly/2RZSvsf

Accused: Fr Joe Seery who died in Co. Clare in 2011.

New allegations of sexual abuse arose when he was moved to a small parish in Connemara, according to Fr Pat Buckley (pictured), who was ordained with Fr Seery in Waterford in 1976.

Seery was immediately appointed on special assignment to Knock, Co. Mayo, in preparation for Pope John Paul II’s visit.

Fr Joe Seery fled to Ireland in 1978 while police in New Orleans were investigating the case of sexual abuse of a male minor.

An Irish priest who was removed from his ministry in America over a sexual abuse allegation went on to serve for 20 years in Ireland, where new allegations of abuse emerged, Extra.ie has learned.

Fr Joe Seery fled to Ireland in 1978 while police in New Orleans were investigating the case of sexual abuse of a male minor, and was immediately appointed on special assignment to Knock, Co. Mayo, in preparation for Pope John Paul II’s visit.

New allegations of sexual abuse arose when he was moved to a small parish in Connemara, according to Fr Pat Buckley, who was ordained with Fr Seery in Waterford in 1976 – just two years before sexual abuse allegations arose in New Orleans.

He went on to serve five more parishes in Ireland over a period of 20 years before being pressured into retiring in 1997, aged just 44.

Details of his life have been uncovered for the first time after the Archdiocese of New Orleans published a file on priests who had been removed from ministry for sexual abuse allegations, as part of a new policy of openness in the American Catholic Church.

One of the removed New Orleans priests is listed as a ‘Father John Seery’ but doesn’t give any details of where he was from. An archdiocese spokeswoman said that he had moved to Ireland.

Extra.ie eventually traced him to the archdiocese of Tuam, where he spent 20 years as ‘Father Joe Seery’.

Joseph Seery, originally from Ennis, Co. Clare, was ‘credibly’ accused of molesting children in 1978 while at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Parish in Westwego, New Orleans. His Church faculties were removed and he returned to Ireland.

He told Tuam archdioscese authorities he had been allowed to return to Ireland and was brought in with other priests to prepare Knock for the Papal visit in 1979. He spent a year in Knock and, between 1979 and 1989, Seery served the diocese of Ballyconnelly, Galway, also in the Tuam archdiocese.

There, a new allegation of sexual abuse emerged, according to Fr Pat Buckley, who went through seminary with Fr Seery in Waterford.

He was moved to Killawalla, Co. Mayo, in 1989 for four years before a final move to Athenry.

At the time, Ireland was rocked by a series of Church sexual abuse allegations and details of his past were starting to emerge. He was forced to retire quietly at the age of 44.

At the time, he was in the process of being removed from the priesthood completely, according to Sarah McDonald, a spokeswoman for the New Orleans Archdiocese.

Known as John during his time in New Orleans, it was the name John Seery that appeared on a list of clergy who admitted, or have been publicly accused, of sexually abusing a minor.

The list was revealed by the Archdiocese of New Orleans in an effort to be more open about the Catholic priest sexual abuse scandal of the 1970s and 1980s.

Ms McDonald said: ‘The Rev. John Seery was credibly accused in 1978 of molesting children in the late 1970s while at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Parish in Westwego.

‘In 1978, law enforcement investigated, Archbishop Philip Hannan removed his faculties, and Seery moved to Ireland. John Seery did perform some priestly ministry in Ireland for a period, but his faculties were removed by the archbishop in Ireland in 1997. The process of laicisation had begun before his death.

‘The authorities in New Orleans were involved in an investigation into the allegations against Seery but Seery was never prosecuted in New Orleans.’ He died in 2011 at the age of 58 in Ennis.

In 1978, when Fr Seery was sent back to Ireland, he served the Tuam Archdiocese and any details of the allegation were not revealed.

A spokesman said: ‘Fr Joseph Seery came to the Archdiocese of Tuam in 1978; 1978-1979 he held two temporary appointments – Knock and Irishtown – in 1979-1989 Ballyconneely, Galway; in 1989-1993 Killawalla, Co. Mayo and 1993-1997 Athenry, Co. Galway. There is nothing here that would indicate why he came to Ireland.’ Joseph Seery was ordained alongside renowned liberal priest Pat Buckley in 1976.

Fr Buckley has since been involved in various controversies as he worked to modernise the Church’s approach to gay marriage.

Fr Buckley has contacted several people about the case since being contacted by the Extra.ie. He said that one man contacted him to say that a new allegation arose in Ballyconnelly, Galway, and that Fr Seery moved on from the parish.

‘We were ordained in 1976. We did not keep in touch because he moved to America and we lost contact. I have not spoken to him since,’ Fr Buckley said.

‘Eventually, he was removed from the parish in Tuam and went home to live in the family home in Ennis. He has died since then.’ Fr Buckley added in his own blog: ‘I knew that he had been ordained for New Orleans. We were ordained on the same day by the bishop. I was aware that Joe left New Orleans very quickly and then received appointments within the Archdiocese of Tuam, Ireland.

‘I am now surprised and shocked that Joe went on to abuse within a year or so of his ordination.

‘It is extremely worrying that he worked at Knock Shrine where he would have unrestricted access to children from all over the country and world. There was no indication in the seminary that he was an abuser or potential abuser – at least not that I saw.’ In 1997, Joseph Seery was removed from the priesthood and moved back to his parent’s, Pa and Margie Seery’s, home in Corrovorrin, Ennis. He died at the age of 58 in 2011 and was buried in Corrovorrin Cemetery.