Tx Date: 19th March 2002

This script was made from audio tape – any inaccuracies are due to voices being unclear or inaudible.

It was slightly amended in February 2010 in order to protect the identity of one of the contributors.

00.00.00

Music

00.00.05
Sarah Macdonald
Irish Catholic priest, Father Sean Fortune was a bullying,
serial paedophile who preyed on young boys.

00.00.11

Music

00.00.16
Sarah Macdonald
His boss, Bishop Brendan Comiskey knew children were
at risk but failed to protect them.

00.00.22

Music

00.00.25
Sarah Macdonald
These men have been denied justice.

00.00.27

Music

00.00.28
Sarah Macdonald
I just wanted to know why didn't you stop Sean
Fortune…

00.00.28
Bishop Comiskey
I'm going to have mass at half past six. I, I, I…

00.00.33
Sarah Macdonald
…abusing young boys? Bishop Comiskey?

00.00.35

Music

00.00.38
Sarah Macdonald
Bishop Comiskey won't give them answers. Now they're
suing the Pope.

00.00.41

Correspondent Theme Music

00.00.52
Title Page
Suing the Pope

00.00.58

Waves crashing

00.01.15
Colm O'Gorman
I hate this. Right now, driving along in this car, I feel
awful and I don't want to be here.

00.01.27

Waves crashing/music

00.01.37
Aston
COLM O'GORMAN
I really, really resent having to do this but I do feel like I
have to because it hasn't been dealt with and there are
people who are still suffering because of this.

00.01.51

Music

00.02.02
Sarah Macdonald
Colm O'Gorman is a thirty-five year old Irishman living
in London.

00.02.07
Sarah Macdonald
Today he is revisiting his birthplace, County Wexford on
the south east coast of Ireland.

00.02.14
Sarah Macdonald
This Catholic priest, Father Sean Fortune, sexually
abused Colm when he was fourteen years old, assaulting
and raping him for two and half years.

00.02.25

Waves crashing

00.02.34
Sarah Macdonald
Colm had met Father Fortune just once when the priest
came to his house and asked to take the young boy away
for the weekend.

00.02.44
Sarah Macdonald
Such was the power of the Church in Ireland; no one
questioned this unknown priest's motivations.

00.02.53
Colm O'Gorman
He would pick me up and be the priest in front of my
mother and my family. Five minutes later in the car he'd
have me perform oral sex on him. And then, five minutes
after that ended, stop off and again be the priest and walk
into somebody's house with me in tow behind.

00.03.18
Sarah Macdonald
In 1981 Poulfur, Fethard-on-Sea became Father Sean
Fortune's first curacy. A rural fishing community of
around two hundred families. It's conservative and
predominantly Catholic.

00.03.33
Sarah Macdonald
The parish priest is all-powerful in this country where the
Church and the state are closely intertwined.

00.03.44
Sarah Macdonald
The parishioners were quickly drawn in by the dashing
energetic young cleric. He soon had them divided into
thirty-two different organisations, the children into a
score of youth groups.

0.03.56
Sarah Macdonald
But their delight turned to horror as Father Fortune saw
to dominate every aspect of this community. He stripped
the elderly of their savings, cursed the unborn babies of
parents who defied him and preached from the altar
against those who would not cede to his demands.

00.04.14
Gemma Hearne
His aim was certainly money and power. He was
obsessed with money and power.

00.04.23
Sarah Macdonald
Gemma Hearne has lived in Fethard for thirty years. She
watched Fortune's every move.

00.04.29
Aston
GEMMA HEARNE
His modus operandi was that he was going to heal and
cure and say masses and he had all sorts of prayer
services and healing services and it was all for money.
He blessed boats; he got money. He did, everything he
did was for money.

00.04.48
Sarah Macdonald
In the early eighties, unemployment was especially high
in small communities like Fethard-on-Sea. Father
Fortune managed to coax more than a million pounds
from government employment schemes for this tiny
parish.

00.05.01
Sarah Macdonald
But he embezzled the funds, claiming for people who
didn't exist and docking money from those who did.

00.05.08
Sarah Macdonald
But it was his overt interest in the boys, which began to
worry the locals.

00.05.13
Gemma Hearne
He became very, very much involved in the youth club.
He formed his own youth club.

00.05.19

Music

00.05.20
Gemma Hearne
He took them on retreats, allegedly, retreats and one of
them being to Loftus Hall where I am told that it was
horrific. That it was a mixed retreat and that they there
had pillow fights and all sorts of orgies and he showed
very, very explicit videos.

00.05.43

Music

00.05.45
Sarah Macdonald
In Ireland it would have been scandalous to defy a priest.
But in Poulfur, as their sons became more withdrawn,
parents turned to the Bishop for help. He did nothing.

00.05.56
Sarah Macdonald
Desperately, they wrote of their fears to the Pope's
Ambassador to Ireland, the Papal Nuncio.

00.06.01

Music

00.06.09
Colm O'Gorman
The one thing that I always wanted was for somebody to
take this back, for somebody to take responsibility, for
somebody to say; actually, we should have done
something here, we didn't.

00.06.21
Sarah Macdonald
When Doctor Brendan Comiskey became Bishop of
Ferns in 1984 there was renewed hope that he would act
against the now bizarre and dangerous behaviour of
Father Sean Fortune.

00.06.33
Gemma Hearne
There were complaints every single day about Father
Fortune in some shape or form.

00.06.39
Sarah Macdonald
And some of that would have been about sexual abuse of
the children?

00.06.42
Gemma Hearne
Yes. Absolutely, absolutely. But see parents didn't
realise, in the beginning, what was happening because
they thought that here we have a great young man coming
in.

00.06.56
Gemma Hearne
Nobody seemed to be able to do anything about it.

00.07.04
Sarah Macdonald
Doctor Brendan Comiskey is still the Bishop of Ferns.
He's admitted being informed of allegations of child
abuse against a number of priests, including Sean
Fortune, when he was first appointed.

00.07.18
Gemma Hearne
I went to Bishop Comiskey, myself. I wrote to Bishop
Comiskey first of all and I followed it up with a visit and
Bishop Comiskey, his first question to me at that visit;
had I any reason to believe that Father Fortune was
homosexual?

00.07.41

Music

00.07.50
Sarah Macdonald
Fortune trained for the priesthood in the seventies at
Saint Peter's in the heart of Wexford. The priests and
seminarians taught pupils at the school attached. Fortune
learned more here than just ecclesiastical duties.

00.08.03

Music

00.08.11
Sarah Macdonald
It now looks like a paedophile ring, whether formally or
informally, was operating within the seminary and for
years exploiting the boys.

00.08.21
Sarah Macdonald
Father Donal Collins, the school principal and another
priest were both later separately convicted of sexually
abusing young children.

00.08.30
Aston
GER WALSH
Managing Director,
'Wexford People'
The diocese has had more than its fair share of problems
in this regard. One has to wonder about the selection
process for priests in this diocese and also, you know,
what they were exposed to in, in, in the seminary.

00.08.51
Sarah Macdonald
Father Fortune used to teach Ger Walsh religious studies
at school.

00.08.58
Ger Walsh
I would have been aware of his reputation and his bizarre
conduct really. It certainly, to us as, as teenage pupils at
the time it would have been quite clear that this man
wasn't, probably not fit for any position of responsibility,
let alone to be a priest, to be ordained a priest. But
despite that and despite all the, that was known about
him, he went on and was ordained and was given a
parish.

00.09.28
Sarah Macdonald
And it is clear that the Church knew of Sean Fortune's
sexual predilection. He was exposed two years before his
ordination when he was a scout leader in Wexford.

00.09.39
Aston
PAT JACKMAN
We went away on camp together with the scouts and we
were in a tent one day and Sean started playing with one
of the boys and when I say playing I don't mean football,
he was interfering with him sexually in front of us. There
was about, say there was about six kids in the tent
ranging from about ten to twelve.

00.10.05
Sarah Macdonald
Allegations of indecency reached both Saint Peter's
Seminary and Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland national
headquarters.

00.10.13
Sarah Macdonald
The CBSI has told Correspondent that after informing the
church hierarchy, Father Fortune was asked to remove
himself from the association forever.

00.10.23
Sarah Macdonald
But at exactly the same time, Fortune was ordained and
sent to Belfast to work with children. He immediately
defied the scouting ban.

00.10.33
Aston
DAMIEN MacALEEN
He asked to play a game and the game was patting each
other in the groin area. So I was maybe thirteen,
fourteen, didn't know what I was at, so I agreed and
thought it was a game. And then all of a sudden, like
after a couple of minutes he started groping, you know
literally rubbing me up and that went on for another
couple of minutes until I turned and said stop. So as I
stood up he more or less tried to force me back to the
ground.

00.11.04
Sarah Macdonald
Concerned about persistent rumours, a priest was
despatched to ask questions about Father Fortune but
clearly only in a cursory manner.

00.11.14
Damien MacAleen
He'd ask me the question; did I see any strange behaviour
was going on with Father Fortune or any funny games,
you know strange games? And I denied ever knowing
anything about Father Fortune playing games, you know.
It was just because my friend was there with him; I didn't
want to get embarrassed.

00.11.38
Sarah Macdonald
Whatever was discovered, Father Fortune was pulled out
of Belfast and given his own church and curacy; Saint
Aiden's in Poulfur, Fethard-on-Sea.

00.11.56
Colm O'Gorman
The only sense that I can make of that is that a bunch of
men who had powerful privileged positions were much
more interested in protecting their power, their position
and their institution than they were in any way in
protecting the people that they were due to minister to or
the people that they spoke of in terms of love or
compassion. There's no love or compassion there.
There's an absolute disrespect and disregard for people
and it makes me sick.

00.12.25
Sarah Macdonald
Such abuse has become an international scandal.

00.12.28
Aston
Fr TOM DOYLE
It almost always happens to children or young adults,
young adolescents who are very close to the Church.
They are raised in a, in a church environment, they
implicitly trust the Church and the hierarchical members,
the Bishop, the priests. When they are sexually abused
by a priest it's a profound betrayal of trust.

00.12.49
Sarah Macdonald
Father Tom Doyle is an American Catholic priest. He
was a rising star at the Vatican Embassy in Washington
in the eighties when the first case of clerical abuse broke
in the United States.

00.13.00

Music

00.13.03
Sarah Macdonald
As a canon law expert he watched as the Church moved
to protect the priest and turn on the victims. He became
an outspoken critic of the Church's response to child
abuse and as a result was fired from his job.

00.13.19
Sarah Macdonald
He's now an army chaplain in Germany.

00.13.23
Father Tom Doyle
There's been very aggressive action taken by the
institution against victims and their families when they
have initiated law suits. Very aggressive action by the
attorneys to try to, in a sense beat the people down.
Parents and families who've made disclosures have been
threatened, they've been intimidated, they've been,
they've been, they've been put into a very fearful stance
to try to coerce them into, into not going public.

00.13.56
Sarah Macdonald
Pat Jackman was eleven when he witnessed Father
Fortune abusing boy scouts. As a fifteen year old student
at Saint Peter's he was aware of the rumours surrounding
not just Fortune but other priests as well.

00.14.09
Sarah Macdonald
Fortune ingratiated himself into Pat's family, a ploy he
used with many of his victims. He became especially
good friends with Pat's mother.

00.14.20
Aston
PAT JACKMAN
When he arrived at the house and my mum and dad
weren't there either myself or my brother were
potentially in trouble. I said something to my aunt and
uncle, if this guy makes any sort of suggestion that we go
away with him for a day or a night or anything just say
no, I can't tell you why, just, just say no.

00.14.42
Pat Jackman
So, as it turned out as he was, as he was walking out the
door it's exactly what he said. He turned to my aunt and
uncle and he said, oh by the way, I've got this new, I've
got this new organ that I want to show, unfortunate
choice of words, but I've got this new organ that I want to
show Pat because he knew I was into music, do you mind
if he comes out and spends the weekend out in Poulfur.

00.15.01
Pat Jackman
And, and God love my aunt and uncle and my aunt still
feels bad about it to this day and she said, no, yeah, sure,
sure Father. I mean you don't imagine that a priest is
going to do anything to a kid, you know.

00.15.17
Pat Jackman
As I walked out the door my brother was standing in the
hallway and the look of shock on his face. He knew and I
knew and we were kind of looking at each other and
Martin was like, didn't say anything but it was like; God
help you Pat, I don't know what to do. And I was like,
you know, just get me out of this, you know. Walked out
the door anyway, drove off into the sunset.

00.15.37

Singing

00.15.54
Pat Jackman
There wasn't a phone in the place. If I ran out screaming
in the middle of the night I didn't even know where the
nearest house was. I didn't know if I went and knocked
the door whether they'd wake up, I didn't know if they
did wake up whether they'd believe me or not.

00.16.03

Singing

00.16.04
Pat Jackman
And the sense of being trapped and you know, and caged.
It was, you know, bloody horrible, absolutely bloody
horrible.

00.16.11

Singing

00.16.18
Pat Jackman
It was eleven hours of, of a constant torture, which ended
up in sexual acts of sorts.

00.16.33
Sarah Macdonald
And then you went home, he took you home.

00.16.36
Pat Jackman
Eventually, yeah, yeah. He, after dragging me round the
parish. And I still say to this day, I mean those
parishioners were looking at me, like, like you know,
another little boy, you know, as if I was kind of
encouraging him, you know, in a sort of way. Having to
face them and having to be normal, you know. And he
eventually said he'd, he'd bring me home.

00.17.09
Pat Jackman
Ah you know Pat, you know, yourself and your mother,
yourself and you mother, you know we're getting on
great, we're great mates, you won't say anything to her,
it'll, it'll, it'll kill her, it'll hurt her feelings and you'll
ruin our friendship.

00.17.21
Pat Jackman
And I said to him, look Sean if you, if you promise not to
do to anybody else what you did to me I'll have no
problem in saying anything. And he just smiled at me
and he says, ah come on Pat.

00.17.37
Pat Jackman
The man was unrepentant. It wasn't even a question of
lying about it, it wasn't even, if he'd lied to me at that
moment, if he said yeah you're right Pat, I'm very sorry,
it won't happen again, I don't know what happened to me
or whatever, if he'd made some excuse I wouldn't have
said a bloody word.

00.17.56
Pat Jackman
But, no he planned to continue and he made no bones
about it. Right, bugger you, says I, I'm going home and
telling bloody everybody. I didn't tell him that like but
sure the minute, the minute, the second that I was in the
door. I went up to my auntie.

00.18.19
Sarah Macdonald
And said what?

00.18.23
Pat Jackman
Well, Sean Fortune queered me up.

00.18.33
Sarah Macdonald
Pat Jackman's father was and still is closely associated
with the Church. He complained directly to Bishop
Herlihey about the sexual assault of his fifteen year old
son.

00.18.46
Pat Jackman
The Bishop thought it was ludicrous that a man of the
cloth would act like that.

00.18.54
Sarah Macdonald
After Bishop Herlihey died, Pat's father complained to
Bishop Comiskey. To this day no one from the Church
has asked Pat Jackman about Father Fortune or the events
of that night.

00.19.09
Colm O'Gorman
On Sunday mornings, after Fortune had abused me on
Saturday night, he'd leave me in his bed in the bedroom
in the house there and come down and say first mass.
And I remember that he used to come back after saying
first mass and sometimes abuse me again and then I'd
have to go downstairs with him and have breakfast and
then come down here for the second mass and sit and
watch him say mass.

00.19.48
Colm O'Gorman
It was so hard to make sense of what was happening.

00.19.54

Music

00.20.43
Sarah Macdonald
Colm has returned to Fethard-on-Sea in search of
answers. He's shocked to discover that the majority of
the community knew what Fortune was doing.

00.20.52
Sarah Macdonald
Gemma is one of the few locals willing to talk to him.

00.20.59
Aston
GEMMA HEARNE
A priest is somebody whom you look up to and how do
you tell your parents that something is going on. Now
it's much easier because it's coming out in the open,
thankfully.

00.21.10
Aston
COLM O'GORMAN
I didn't even understand that I was being sexually abused.
I just thought something really bad was happening and I
was doing it. You know, I blamed myself for what was
happening. And he was good at that. I mean he made me
feel like he, he, really manipulated me into a position
where I accepted total blame for what was happening. He
told me it was my problem and he needed to help me.
And he actually threatened to tell my parents. So, the
idea of my parents knowing was in always in the form of
a threat and being told by a priest what I was like. And
even though it doesn't make any sense now, at fourteen
years of age, fifteen years of age that was terrifying for
me. So I couldn't tell them, no.

00.21.50
Sarah Macdonald
That night Colm again returns to the parochial house
where Father Fortune abused him.

00.21.56
Colm O'Gorman
Not only do I, I suppose, have to deal with the fact that I
was abused by Fortune, the fact that ultimately I feel I
was abused by the Church and the fact that that whole
society, that my own society abandoned me because an
awful lot of people knew exactly what was happening but
chose not to do anything about it.

00.22.12
Sarah Macdonald
The current priest of Poulfur can't bring himself to live in
this house. He's building a new one.

00.22.21
Sarah Macdonald
Fortune was abusing and blackmailing many young boys
but still he received total backing from his church
superiors, even meeting the Pope in the midst of
mounting allegations.

00.22.34
Sarah Macdonald
The Bishop sent Fortune to psychiatrists, but they
couldn't decide if he was a sexual deviant of not. So
Fortune was left in the parish, often supported publicly
by his Bishop.

00.22.50
Sarah Macdonald
One of Father Fortune's many schemes was the night
watch team. Young boys would ride around on their
bicycles after dark to protect the homes of the elderly.

00.23.02
Sarah Macdonald
Two of these boys are now dead. They committed
suicide within a couple of years of each other.

00.23.23
Sarah Macdonald
In this community of just two hundred families, four
young men have killed themselves. Like the abuse, no
one talks openly about the suicides.

00.23.37
Sarah Macdonald
And there is no direct evidence linking these tragic men
to Father Fortune. But many believe that he is to blame.

00.23.43

Waves crashing

00.23.59
Sarah Macdonald
Peter Fitzpatrick shot himself in the chest. His mother
has now finally voiced the fear she's harboured since
discovering her son's body.

00.24.09
Aston
MONICA FITZPATRICK
I thought what was going down on in Poulfur, I asked
Peter and he said well, the lads were saying like that
Father Fortune had the young lads in with him and things
that way. But he never mentioned about being in with
him. He never mentioned to me now about being in with
him.

00.24.29
Monica Fitzpatrick
He had a caravan just at the bottom of the garden there
because he, he wanted his own bit of space.

00.24.37
Monica Fitzpatrick
And when I went down, I called at the caravan door, there
was no answer. And I just stepped up into the caravan
and Peter was lying back on the bed.

00.24.56
Monica Fitzpatrick
I just screamed and come tearing up the garden. And I
got Patrick and my husband and they came down with me
to the caravan. And I said, what happened to him, what's
wrong? And Patrick said; mummy, he said, you didn't
see, it's on the floor and I didn't see the gun on the floor.

00.25.28
Monica Fitzpatrick
I didn't want Father Fortune near the house. I didn't
want him near the place and he came, he came that day,
that Saturday night. He was laughing and joking his
usual, usual way and I said to him, Father Fortune I didn't
want you here. And he said, oh we can't talk about
things like that now, he said. He said, this is not the time,
he said to be talking. I said I specifically said I didn't
want you and I don't want you there at the funeral either.

00.26.01
Monica Fitzpatrick
It just keeps hitting me all the time – did he abuse Peter?
Was Peter involved with Father Fortune? I do keep
thinking about that and would that have sort of brought
on, would it brought on this, I don't know. I don't know.
I talk to myself going round.

00.26.31
Sarah Macdonald
Have you contacted the Bishop or anything?

00.26.33
Monica Fitzpatrick
No. No, when the Bishop didn't do anything when he
was told about it by the, the youngsters and their family
and that and he done nothing about it, there is no point to
go near the Bishop. But I think the Bishop knows most
of the answers and I think he should be answering the
questions for the people.

00.26.58

Music

00.27.09
Sarah Macdonald
Six years after the first complaint, Father Fortune was
finally removed from Poulfur, burning all financial
records relating to the parish on his departure.

00.27.19

Music

00.27.24
Sarah Macdonald
All Bishop Comiskey did was to send him to London to
study media and communications and to see yet more
psychiatrists.

00.27.31

Music

00.27.35
Sarah Macdonald
One year later Fortune was brought home and awarded
with not only another parish but also the directorship of a
Catholic media organisation, the National Association of
Community Broadcasting.

00.27.48
Sarah Macdonald
Father Fortune quickly turned his new role to his
financial advantage.

00.27.53
Sarah Macdonald
Using the Irish state broadcaster, RTE's good name, he
ran night classes through a bogus journalism and media
institute, making over a hundred thousand pounds a year.

00.28.05

Music

00.28.09
Sarah Macdonald
Fortune remained completely uninhibited by mounting
accusations and never missed an opportunity for self-
promotion.

00.28.17
Presenter
Maria, just there.

00.28.19
Woman
I'd just like to ask that clergyman that if among a family
that you were talking with, that you met, say two
members of that family who were homosexuals. How
would you deal with that?

00.28.28
Father Fortune
I'd like to reply in the words of the Irish Bishops, may I?
Homosexual persons can no less than others, acquire real
holiness in life, they should be supported by the Christian
community and especially by compassionate and
enlightened guidance from priests, in their efforts to do
so.

00.28.49
Sarah Macdonald
Within months of setting up his bogus media institute,
Father Fortune raped one of his fifteen year old students
in a recording booth he used for producing religious
programmes.

00.28.59
MAN
It was in a small booth in front of the main sort of studio
and he, you know, started kind of feeling me up and kind
of put his hand under my jumper and I was like, no. But,
in a sense and very, very rapidly he sort of basically
pinned me down against the, the mixing desk and sort of,
he anally raped me.

00.29.27
MAN
And it was very frightening, very painful experience and
it was all quite brief. It was very brutal and at no point, I
think all subtlety, I mean he was a manipulative and very
subtle man but I think subtlety went out the window at
that stage. And afterwards, it was all over quite quickly
and afterwards I got out of there as quickly as possible.

00.30.02
MAN
But not before he had a chance to kind of, to say, you
know you'll be in big, big trouble, you know.
If, you know, really it would be better for you, you know.
And I was like, you know, I'm not going to say anything,
just let me get the hell out of here. You know, I was just
like, fuck, you know. And I think if I remember rightly I
actually left my bag and that was one thing I remember
later on, I was coming on the bus home and I thought oh
no, I left my bag with all my stuff in there or whatever.
But I didn't, I didn't go back for it.

00.30.41
Sarah Macdonald
Yet it's now clear that a year before he was raped,
two more complaints about Father Fortune sexually
abusing young boys were made to Bishop Comiskey.

00.30.51
Sarah Macdonald
This time the Church investigated. Father Fortune denied
the allegations, the Church came to no conclusions and
did nothing. It offered no explanation, then or now.

00.31.05
Sarah Macdonald
Inside this room the torment continued.

00.31.10
Sarah Macdonald
Correspondent has obtained these pictures of yet another
of Sean Fortune's victims. The young man beneath the
priest had been abused from the age of fifteen. He used
the video to blackmail Father Fortune into finally leaving
him alone.

00.31.30
Sarah Macdonald
Bishop Brendan Comiskey says he has never, ever, put a
child's safety at risk to protect any priest.

00.31.38
Sarah Macdonald
He declined to respond to Correspondent's questions
about why he failed to prevent Father Fortune abusing
young boys.

00.31.46
Sarah Macdonald
Until 1995 Brendan Comiskey was battling a serious
alcohol addiction and no one was more aware of the
Bishop's demons than Father Fortune.

00.31.56
Aston
GER WALSH
Managing Director,
'Wexford People'
He certainly acted as a, a, a, as a barman, a, a bar host at
least, at least one occasion that I can say for certain
because I had attended a reception that evening in the
house. And of course Sean Fortune, to my knowledge at
least, didn't consume alcohol and I think that he, he
would skilfully manoeuvre himself so that he could
ensure that people who were in his company would
maybe consume a lot of alcohol.

00.32.35
Sarah Macdonald
It was thanks to Colm O'Gorman that something was
finally done. Fifteen years after Fortune raped him for
the last time; Colm went to the police.

00.32.45
Aston
COLM O'GORMAN
My father actually broke down and spoke to my sister
and just said that he couldn't live with it anymore. And
that really cracked everything open for me. For the first
time ever he'd spoken about what had happened and its
impact on him. So in some ways I guess I did it for,
initially I did it for him, for my father because of the
impact everything had had on him but also because I
feared that Fortune was still abusing.

00.33.10
Sarah Macdonald
The ensuing police investigation resulted in Father
Fortune being charged with sixty-six counts of sexual
indecent assault and buggery relating to eight boys.

00.33.23
Sarah Macdonald
Eighteen years after the first complaint, the Catholic
Church was finally forced to remove him from duties.

00.33.32
Aston
Fr TOM DOYLE
What makes me angry about this whole thing, is when, is
the lack of justice. It's the, it's the almost arrogant, you
know, self-satisfied attitude that the ecclesiastical, that
the church leaders portray in the face of this incredibly
horrendous criminal behaviour by priests. When they,
they almost act like we're above this and how dare they
make accusations against us. And they, in many cases
they've known, that's why these law suits have happened,
that's why they've won the lot, that's why it's cost the
Catholic Church in the United States alone over a billion
dollars over a ten year period. That's a lot of dollars.

00.34.12
Sarah Macdonald
Father Fortune bragged openly that if he went down his
Bishop was going with him.

00.34.18
Sarah Macdonald
But instead of reaching out to Fortune's many victims,
Doctor Brendan Comiskey fled his Bishop's palace and
disappeared.

00.34.26
Ger Walsh
People simply didn't know, they didn't know what state
the diocese had been left in, they didn't know where the
Bishop was or anything. I mean there was no proper
statement to, to, you know, which in retrospect would
have been very helpful. So it began, people began to
investigate various aspects of the Bishop's stewardship of
the diocese and his holiday destinations for example
became a, a focus of interest.

00.35.02
Sarah Macdonald
But the Bishop wasn't on holiday. He was in a clinic in
America being treated for alcoholism. When he returned
six months later, it was to a media inquisition about his
financial affairs, foreign holidays and his handling of
child sexual abuse allegations.

00.35.20
Aston
November 1998

00.35.20
Aston
Bishop BRENDAN COMISKEY
There's a lot of things that haven't come out and the last
thing I would want to give that I was making excuses for
the Bishops, sorry, for myself. I have no problems saying
like, we did not do well.

00.35.33

Music

00.35.36
Sarah Macdonald
In a letter to this programme, Bishop Comiskey says that
he maintains an open door policy for survivors of child
sexual abuse in his diocese and this he feels is where he
can make his best contribution.

00.35.48
Sarah Macdonald
But Bishop Comiskey has never personally reached out in
any way to the men in this film.

00.35.53

Music

00.36.00
Pat Jackman
He has admitted himself that he may not have reacted as
quickly as he should have done but if we were talking in
terms of six months or a year I think that's fine. When
you're talking of over a term of, whatever it was, fifteen
years, that's a different matter entirely, you know. And I
think he preferred to fudge it, I think he preferred to keep
it quiet.

00.36.19

Music

00.36.24
Pat Jackman
I would never, ever leave my kids alone with a priest, like
ever.

00.36.29

Music

00.36.37
Sarah Macdonald
Four priests in Bishop Comiskey's diocese have been
accused of molesting children over the last twenty years.
In the same period, fifty Irish priests have been convicted.

00.36.49
Sarah Macdonald
But attention is increasingly turning to Church superiors.
Last year a French court convicted a Bishop for failing to
report a paedophile priest to the authorities.

00.36.59
Fr Tom Doyle
My guess would be that if the Bishop knew about it,
generally speaking they, because it's a notorious issue,
especially in a small country like Ireland, that the Papal
Nuncio would have known and he in turn would have
reported that to the Vatican. Whether the Pope would
have been personally briefed on it, that I don't know, I
can't tell you that. But I do know in many of the
American cases the Pope did personally know.

00.37.23

Music

00.37.35
Sarah Macdonald
This year the Vatican issued new guidelines on how its
senior clergy should respond to allegations of child
abuse.

00.37.43
Sarah Macdonald
Suspected cases should now be reported immediately to
Rome, so the Vatican can determine the course of action.
They do not say if civil authorities should be told.
Instead, the Vatican will act as police, judge and jury.
And it will all be conducted in secret.

00.38.00
Fr Tom Doyle
If you know that a crime has been committed and you,
you, you either look the other way or you condone it or
you support the perpetrator, you share in the guilt. That,
I think, should be pursued. And I don't think just
because a man is a Bishop does not entitle him to allow
criminal acts to take place or to commit them himself. It
certainly doesn't entitle him to allow children to be
violated and their lives ruined.

00.38.25
Sarah Macdonald
What do you think should happen to them?

00.38.26
Fr Tom Doyle
I think the same thing should happen to them that should
happen to any leader or anyone who harbours a criminal,
they should be prosecuted.

00.38.37
Sarah Macdonald
Supported by the Church, Fortune managed to drag the
legal process out for four years, at one point disappearing
to Belgium with thirty thousand pounds. He was finally
brought before the Irish courts in 1999.

00.38.51
Sarah Macdonald
Whilst out on bail he killed himself with a cocktail of
alcohol and drugs, denying the boys their first chance to
be heard.

00.39.02
Gemma Hearne
I never spoke to Bishop Comiskey about Father Fortune
or his suicide. But I would say that it was probably the
happiest day of his life. Because, although he may have
lost a clergyman, he left, Father Fortune brought a lot of
secrets to the grave that would have come out had he
gone to jail or had he gone to court. And Bishop
Comiskey would have, I mean after all he was the Bishop
of Ferns, or he is the Bishop of Ferns. So he has
responsibility for his clergy and the blame would have to
be laid clearly at his feet because he didn't deal with the
situation as he should have done.

00.39.58
Colm O'Gorman
Twenty years ago that bastard raped me.

00.40.05
Colm O'Gorman
And, I'm still now forced to be in a position where I have
to fight to get somebody to acknowledge what they did or
didn't do and the responsibility that they had for that.
And I meet up with other men who are in exactly the
same position and I find out that, that, that young boys
and men have died, have committed suicide, I believe
because of what he did to them.

00.40.30
Colm O'Gorman
And you have, frankly, bastards like Brendan Comiskey,
hiding in his nice palace in Summerhill, behind his
alcoholism and his regret and his, you know, his inability
to understand or to do anything about it. It's not good
enough; it's not good enough. It's not good enough
anymore. People have died. People are dying. People
are hurting.

00.41.00
Sarah Macdonald
Bishop Comiskey!

00.41.01
Bishop Comiskey
We will survive, how are you?

00.41.03
Sarah Macdonald
I'm fine thanks. Sarah Macdonald, BBC television.

00.41.04
Bishop Comiskey
Sarah, how are you?

00.41.05
Sarah Macdonald
Very well, thank you. I've just come to ask you just a
question about Sean Fortune…

00.41.09
Bishop Comiskey
I'm going to have mass at half past six…

00.41.09
Sarah Macdonald
We just wanted to know why didn't you stop Sean
Fortune abusing young boys? Bishop Comiskey?

00.41.12
Aston
Bishop BRENDAN COMISKEY
I, I, I moved, when it was brought to my attention I
moved him out of the parish and sent him on treatment
for two years…

00.41.20
Sarah Macdonald
Not for six years. Not for six years, you didn't move him
out of the parish. Why didn't you stop him?

00.41.26
Bishop Comiskey
Thank you very much.

00.41.27
Sarah Macdonald
Why didn't you stop him, Bishop Comiskey?

00.41.37
Monica Fitzpatrick
It's the first time I've talked, haven't been able to talk to
neighbours or family, I can't. I haven't been able to talk
to them. But, I think Father Fortune is dead and gone
now, I know he's dead and gone but there was really
nothing done about him before he died. He was let away
and I think the Bishop as well was there involved. The
Bishop knew all about it and he was the one that should
have sorted Father Fortune out from the early times. I
think all the young lads that have been involved like, that
he has abused, I think there's no answers for them. Peter
has gone and there's nothing we can do.

00.42.33
Sarah Macdonald
In the last year another young man has committed suicide
in Fethard-on-Sea.

00.42.38

Waves crashing

00.42.41
Sarah Macdonald
Doctor Brendan Comiskey remains the Bishop of Ferns.

00.42.45
Sarah Macdonald
Since Father Sean Fortune's suicide, six of his victims
have begun legal action.

00.42.51
Sarah Macdonald
So far, the Church's only response has been to deny
liability and plead diplomatic immunity.

00.42.59
Sarah Macdonald
Colm O'Gorman is suing the Bishop, the Papal Nuncio
and the Pope.

00.43.03

End Music

00.43.14
Voice over
For more information on tonight's programme please
visit our web site at:

www.bbc.co.uk/correspondent

00.43.23
Voice over
A helpline number will be given out at the end of this
programme.

00.43.11
Reported & Directed by
SARAH MACDONALD

Original Music
CHARLIE MOLE

Camera
JONATHAN CALLERY

Dubbing Mixer
PHITZ HEARNE

VT Editor
ROD HUTSON

Graphic Design
NICOLA OWEN

Production Team
ALEXANDRA CAMERON
EMMA CASHMORE
SARAH EVA
ANJANA SHARMA

Production Manager
JANE WILLEY

Unit Manager
IRENE OZGA

Film Research
NICK DODD

Picture Editor
DAVID HOWELL

Series Producer
SIMON FINCH

Deputy Editor
FARAH DURRANI

00.43.31
Editor
FIONA MURCH