Events that clouded most of man's life finally over

A saga that has dominated Mervyn Rundle's life for 18 of his 28 years ended with a two-minute statement in the High Court yesterday.

The courtroom was packed for the occasion, mainly with lawyers from other cases up for mention. Few people were there to witness the finale of an action against the Catholic Church.

Indeed, when counsel for the Archdiocese of Dublin emerged from the thicket of legal representatives to read an apology into the court record, the recipient of the apology was standing outside and didn't hear it.

Cardinal Connell was not even in the building, nor was anyone else from the Archdiocese. But the statement read out on the church's behalf was close to abject, expressing "profound regret" for the way Father Tom Naughton "grievously injured" a nine-year-old altar boy during the mid-1980s.

This was an apology negotiated between lawyers, however, and there was a layer of euphemism over its admission of church negligence. Before Mervyn Rundle's experiences, it noted delicately, "reasons for concern about the conduct of Father Naughton had emerged which, had they been more successfully pursued, could have resulted in his being withdrawn from parochial duties".

Outside the court, the Rundle family had their own statement for the record. Mervyn Snr read it on behalf of his son, recalling the day in 1985 when he took him by the hand - "a frightened young boy" - to complain to the archbishop.

In keeping with the family's demeanour, the statement expressed no bitterness, and even spoke of compassion for the offending priest "and the burden he must have to live with". But the family are living with a burden too, settlement or no settlement.

Hugging her son, Rose Rundle said she could no longer attend Mass because of what had happened: "I've lost my faith. I might find it again, hopefully."

It was to her that the nine-year-old Mervyn, distressed and dishevelled after an experience with Father Naughton, first complained that the priest was "queer". A few questions later, she rang her husband: "I told him he'd better come home."

The subsequent visit to the Archbishop's Palace should have been the end of it, as far as the Rundles were concerned. But Father Naughton was merely moved on. And when a decade later, in 1995, rumours emerged that the priest was abusing children in Ringsend, Mervyn - a young adult now - paid another visit to the archbishop - by then Dr Connell. "Why did I have to come back to you about this," he recalls asking him? "But he had no answer for me."

The legal action began soon afterwards. Cardinal Connell's answer emerged in court, seven years later, in a carefully worded statement, and accompanied by the largest settlement yet in the history of abuse cases involving the Irish church.