IRELAND
Herald
Monday October 08 2012
A bishop has rejected allegations that a paedophile priest confessed to him in jail to the continued abuse of children after a parish transfer.
Bishop of Clonfert John Kirby was forced to issue the denial following reports that he moved a known abuser from one parish to another in 1990 and that the convicted cleric went on to attack.
“I am not aware of an acknowledgement by ‘Priest A’ that he abused any child subsequent to October 1990, the date when I first learned of his sexual abuse of a child,” Bishop Kirby said.
The long-serving senior cleric, heavily criticised by the Catholic Church’s own watchdog for mishandling allegations in his diocese, insisted last month that he did not know if the priest went on to abuse after a parish transfer.
Amid reports that the priest confessed in jail, the bishop said he had not received the information. “Again, contrary to what is claimed, I am not in receipt of any complaint and I have neither knowledge nor suspicion that ‘Priest A’ abused a child in either of the parishes of Kiltormer or Creagh subsequent to October 1990,” Bishop Kirby said.
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