VICTIMS:PRAYERS WERE said for the victims of jailed former priest Tony Walsh at Mass yesterday in Ballyfermot, Dublin.
At Our Lady of Assumption Church on Kylemore Road, parish priest Fr Michael O’Kelly asked the congregation to pray for all those affected by the revelations earlier in the week.
Chapter 19 of the Murphy report into child sexual abuse in the Dublin diocese relating to Walsh was finally published last Friday.
Its publication was approved after the former priest, who was previously jailed for sexually abusing six boys, was sentenced to 16 years for abusing a further three victims.
Many of his victims were abused while he worked in Ballyfermot parish from 1978 to 1985.
The atmosphere in Our Lady of Assumption Church yesterday was subdued as people continued to come to terms with the details contained in the Murphy report.
The sparse congregation prayed for Walsh’s victims and written extracts from a homily given by Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin on the subject of Walsh were made available.
Archbishop Martin had spoken at the church on December 12th in advance of the publication of chapter 19 and apologised to the people of the parish.
Speaking after Mass, Fr O’Kelly said people were deeply shocked by how extensive the abuse had been and particularly that it went back so far, to “literally two days after he was appointed” at the parish.
“People knew what had happened; they didn’t perhaps know the detail or the extent of it, but they knew something dreadful happened so everyone was bracing themselves,” he said.
The congregation was subdued because “in the end of the day there is nothing we can say that will help; words can seem so empty”.
“Our first thoughts are for the victims and what we’ve just heard.Their desire was to be heard and to be believed, that was the most important thing that they wanted from all of this.”
He hoped that to some extent, the publication would bring healing to those people who were terribly affected.
