Statement of regret from Cardinal Connell

Cardinal Desmond Connell has apologised following last night's Prime Time programme.

In a statement this evening, the Cardinal said the victims of sexual abuse by the clergy had suffered a terrible betrayal.

He said that in many instances, the Archdiocese did not act with the necessary speed and decisiveness.

Cardinal Connell said in his statement that he fully accepted that at the time of Fr Noel Reynold's appointment to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire, he should have informed the hospital authorities about concerns raised relating to his inappropriate behaviour with children.

Cardinal Connell also contradicted Prime Time's claim that he promoted another abuser, Fr Ivan Payne in the diocesan Regional Marriage Tribunal.

Regarding a third abuser, Fr Patrick Hughes, who Cardinal Connell cleared to work in America 14 years after the diocese had been told about his crimes, this evening's statement reiterates that there was no account of the previous complaint in diocesan files.

The statement of regret goes on to say "we fully acknowledge that the failure to have such a record was a serious deficiency."

Anger over priest's appointment to hospitalEarlier today a spokesman for Cardinal Connell confirmed that concern had been expressed about the behaviour of Fr Noel Reynolds towards children before his appointment as chaplain to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire.

However, the spokesman said an assessment of the priest concluded there was no evidence of child sexual abuse.

Three years ago, shortly after leaving the hospital, Fr Reynolds admitted abusing more than 100 children in eight parishes in Dublin.

Cardinal Connell's spokesman said this afternoon that when the diocese received the first complaint of child sexual abuse against Fr Reynolds, he was immediately removed from ministry at the hospital.

This occurred in May 1998, 11 months after he was appointed chaplain.

Last night's Prime Time programme reported that in 1996, while parish priest of Glendalough, some parents complained to Archbishop's House that they had serious concerns about his behaviour towards their children but that nothing happened.

But the Archbishop did not inform the hospital of Reynolds' past in Glendalough. The hospital accommodates six long-stay children and a number of teenagers.

Eighteen months later, parents threatened to go public unless something was done about him. Archbishop Connell, as he was then, immediately moved him, assigning him as chaplain to the National Rehabilitation Hospital.

Fr Arthur O'Neill, Administrator of Westland Row, confirmed today that he had reported his concern about Fr Reynolds in 1995.

Hospital was not told of priest's pastThe National Rehabilitation Hospital has said it learnt from RTE only this month that the former chaplain was a self-confessed child abuser.

The hospital's Director of Nursing, Eilish Macklin, said the hospital authorities were owed an explanation as to why neither the Cardinal nor the Gardaí told them about Fr Reynolds admission of child abuse.

Calls for Cardinal Connell to resign Organisations representing victims of child abuse called on the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, to initiate a Garda investigation into the Catholic Church's handling of sex abuse by clerics in the Dublin Diocese.

In a statement, the group, Irish Survivors of Child Abuse, also called on Cardinal Desmond Connell to resign. The group described his position as untenable.

The group said the programme had shown what many victims have been saying for years - that there had been collusion in the cover-up of abuse of children by priests at the highest level in the Church.

The Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, said he was very disturbed at what he had heard this morning and that some reflection was needed before the State could give a response.

However Fine Gael's Justice spokesman, John Deasy, has called for an independent Garda inquiry into allegations of child sex abuse by members of the clergy.

Mr Deasy an inquiry conducted by the Church could not be trusted, given their historical collusion in hiding and denying these crimes.

Dublin Diocese facing legal actions over child sex abuseEarlier today Cardinal Connell's spokesman said the Cardinal had pledged his full and total co-operation with the internal Catholic Church inquiry headed by Judge Gillian Hussey.

The Prime Time documentary reported that the Dublin Archdiocese was currently facing 450 legal actions as a result of clerical sex abuse.

However in the statement this evening from the Dublin Archdiocese, it was claimed that the total number of civil claims settled by the Archdiocese in relation to child sexual abuse by priests belongning to the diocese, was 26. A further 26 claims were outstanding.

Rape Crisis Centre reports increase in callsA spokeswoman for the Rape Crisis Centre in Dublin said they had received a significant number of calls following last night's Prime Time programme.

Extra staff were called in to deal with the calls. Counsellors received 50 calls last night and 25 more today.