Catholic Church sources outside of the diocese of Ferns would not comment yesterday on the BBC Correspondent programme which dealt with the years of sex abuse of boys in the 1980s and 1990s by Wexford priest Father Sean Fortune. It was broadcast on Tuesday night.
The programme was critical of the Bishop of Ferns Dr Brendan Comiskey's handling of the case, and of the office of the Papal Nuncio in Dublin, which it said had also been made aware of the priest's activities.
No one was available to comment on the programme at the office of the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto, last night. The Catholic Primate of All-Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Seán Brady, was also unavailable for comment yesterday. His secretary, Father John Gates, said it would not be appropriate for the Archbishop to comment on the programme or the response to it of the bishop and diocese of Ferns. He said Dr Brady had no jurisdiction over the affairs of any other diocese.
A similar position was adopted by sources at the office of the Archbishop of Dublin, Cardinal Connell, in Dublin yesterday. Mr Paul Bailey, director of the Irish Bishops' Conference Child Protection office, said the programme content and how it might be addressed was "a diocesan matter".
Catholic Church sources pointed out that each bishop is appointed directly by the Pope and is responsible to Rome rather than to the Irish Bishops' Conference. The 26 Catholic dioceses on this island are run independently of one another, with the bishops meeting just three, occasionally four, times a year at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, to address matters of mutual concern.
The BBC programme, titled Suing the Pope, included interviews with four men who recalled how they had been abused as teenagers by Father Fortune.
It also linked the suicides of four other young men to abuse by the priest.
Dr Comiskey declined to be interviewed by the programme but issued its producers with a statement which is carried on these pages. Doorstepped on the programme by reporter Sarah McDonald, he said he had moved Father Fortune when complaints were made to him. He did not reply when asked why it had taken him so long to act on those complaints, before closing a sacristy door on the camera.
