The Ferns Report brings huge relief to victims abused by priests in the Co Wexford diocese, it was claimed tonight.
Colm O'Gorman , who gave evidence to the inquiry about his own abuse at the hands of the notorious Fr Sean Fortune, said many victims came forward to tell their own stories for the first time.
"They felt they had no voice until they inquiry team listened to them and it has transformed their lives in many cases and allowed them to move on," he said.
Mr O'Gorman ended Fortune's reign of terror in Ferns in 1995 when he finally made a formal complaint to gardai and the priest was later charged with 29 counts of sexual abuse on eight boys.
The 39-year-old, who heads the survivors group, One in Four, said he hoped that criminal charges would result from the report being sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. "During the whole 40-year history of clerical abuse in Ferns, only one priest was given a four-month prison suspended sentence and another was given a year.
"That has been the full extent to the criminal justice response to this scandal and is probably the most damning indictment of the system in recent years. "If the criminal offence of reckless endangerment of the welfare of children, which is recommended in the Report, was on the statute books 20 years ago, we would have seen a lot more charges.
"It is essential that we reform criminal law in relation to child protection so that we can more successfully prosecute crimes in this area."
Mr O'Gorman said that the Report had detailed instances where Bishop Brendan Comiskey covered up the activities of Fr Sean Fortune and Fr Donal Collins which may have frustrated later garda investigations.
"These assertions in relation to Comiskey must lead to some kind of investigation by the DPP, but that is a matter for the DPP's office," he said.
Mr O'Gorman also asked people not to victimise the families of abusing priests such as Fortune. "It serves no useful purpose in prolonging the suffering for other people. The only direction is to move forward."
The Wexford native said he would support a similar investigation in abuse in each other dioceses in the country, but only if there were legitimate cases to probe. "These investigations can only be purposeful if their focus is to bring comfort and support to victims while ensuring that the abuse never happens again."
He also claimed that responsibility for the abuse in Ferns went beyond the diocese and the Church hierarchy to the heart of the Vatican. He noted that the Report found that since 1962 the Vatican operated an international policy that all those with knowledge of clerical sex abuse were sworn to secrecy under the threat of ex-communication.
"This finding brings responsibility for the appalling litany of failures both in the diocese and other dioceses internationally back to Rome as the head of the Roman Catholic Church," he added.