IRELAND
Irish Times
Kiltegan congregation challenged by ‘relatively high incidence’ of serious and ongoing abuse
Patsy McGarry
A review of child protection in the Kiltegan Fathers, a missionary order based in Co Wicklow, has found that the congregation “has been challenged by a relatively high incidence of serious and ongoing abuse amongst its members”.
The report, one of eight published yesterday by the National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) looking at practices in a number of Irish dioceses and religious congregations, is damning of the St Patrick’s Missionary Society for its handling of child sex abuse allegations both in Ireland and overseas. It pointed out that how it dealt with abuse allegations differed in Ireland and Africa, with its actions here more robust than overseas.
The report from the Catholic Church’s child protection watchdog found 50 child abuse allegations have been made against 14 of the congregation’s priests with one convicted in the courts. All these allegations were received by the order after January 1st, 1975.
‘Too much tolerance’
The reviewers also found that “accused priests were afforded too much tolerance and so found it too easy to avoid being held accountable for their actions”.
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