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	Church Savaged over Sexual Abuse By John Innes Scotsman [Ireland] October 26, 2005 CATHOLIC priests savagely sexually assaulted youngsters in Ireland during the past 40 years, including one who molested ten girls on the altar as he heard their confessions, a scathing report into clerical abuse revealed yesterday. A two-year investigation into abuse at parishes across Co Wexford uncovered 100 complaints against 21 priests, with one responsible for 26 assaults. The Ferns report revealed that Garda investigations were wholly inadequate, while bishops in the diocese of Ferns failed to take basic precautions to protect children. The report revealed that one priest, Father James Grennan, fondled and kissed ten girls aged 12 and 13 in the parish church in Monageer as he called them up one by one to forgive their sins. As he sat on a chair in front of each girl preparing to abuse them, the rest of the class was forced to sit in their seats with their eyes shut. Another priest fathered a secret child after raping a 14-year-old girl and left money for her in his will, the report said. Canon Martin Clancy began abusing the girl aged 11 after a music concert while he was in Co Wexford in 1971. The Ferns Inquiry report said that the girl, named only as Ciara, went to England in 1974. She gave birth to a child, known as Rachel, but did not initially identify the father of her child to her parents. When she was 16, the priest finally acknowledged Rachel as his daughter and gave her two cheques of £500 each for the child's upkeep. The retired Supreme Court judge Frank Murphy, who headed the investigation, said steps taken by Bishop Donal Herlihy were inadequate and inappropriate. The reports stated that the late bishop did not recognise that child sex abuse was a serious criminal offence. A second senior clergyman, Bishop Brendan Comiskey, was also heavily criticised. The report stated that he had consistently failed to have priests step aside, because he considered it unjust as allegations of abuse were not substantiated. Judge Murphy found that the bishop failed to recognise the paramount need to protect children, as a matter of urgency, from potential abusers. Gardai were blamed for not keeping records of informal complaints of abuse, including an allegation that ten children were molested at the altar in the parish church of Monageer. The 270-page report, stemming from an investigation begun in 2002, details the Roman Catholic Church's handling of more than 100 allegations of abuse against dozens of priests in the diocese of Ferns from the 1960s. A total of 100 abuse claimants were interviewed during the inquiry.
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