IRELAND
Irish Independent
A new TV series has shone a light on a low-key American priest who counselled vulnerable Irish children in the 1990s after fleeing multiple allegations of abusing US schoolgirls and a suspicion of being involved in murder. John Meagher on Father Joseph Maskell
John Meagher
June 11 2017
The green fields and high hedgerows in the Wexford countryside around the villages of Castlebridge, Screen and Curracloe must have felt utterly alien to Joseph Maskell.
Born and bred in the blue-collar city of Baltimore, Maryland, Maskell found himself in his mid-50s – after a completely urban life – in the rural heartland of the country of his father, who hailed from Limerick.
He arrived in this south-east corner of Wexford in 1994 and lived in Castlebridge – just a few miles from bustling Wexford town – but he would have been familiar with the pretty churches that were a short drive away, such as St Cyprian’s in Screen and St Margaret’s in Curracloe.
And it was in one of these churches, in April 1995, that he first came to the attention of the Diocese of Ferns. The file does not confirm whether it was in St Cyprian’s or St Margaret’s that Maskell – a Catholic priest – said Mass in place of Fr Frank Barron, who had been seriously ill, but word reached the bishop’s office and it immediately sought a response.
“I wish only to offer Mass privately and carry out my spiritual activities in a like manner,” Maskell wrote, adding that the had been granted temporary leave from his last posting and had no “plan or desire to engage in any public ministry while here”. He did not respond to a follow-up letter from the diocese seeking confirmation of his status. Fr Barron died shortly afterwards.
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