MAEVE SHEEHAN
THE Director of Public Prosecutions is to examine the Ferns Inquiry report with a view to instituting criminal proceedings against those who have abused children and also against those who may have withheld evidence, including the former bishop of the diocese, Brendan Comiskey.

Colm O'Gorman, a director of One in Four, the group for survivors of abuse, said yesterday: "It is clear from the report that Bishop Comiskey was found to have made inaccurate and misleading statements in relation to one of the most serious crimes in the statute books. Any suggestion in the Ferns report that any Church figure, including Bishop Comiskey, acted to prevent or obstruct criminal investigations into child sexual abuse should be examined, investigated and, if proven, prosecuted."

Mr O'Gorman was referring to the fact that Bishop Comiskey failed to tell gardai that a priest under investigation for abusing boys had admitted his behaviour to the prelate two years earlier. A source close to victims in the Ferns diocese said they had been given to understand that the DPP's review would include the role of anyone who was found to have withheld information from the gardai.

The sexual abuse that occurred during the tenure of Bishop Comiskey and his predecessor, Bishop Donal Herlihy, is described today by the present Bishop of Ferns, Bishop Eamonn Walsh, as "atwisted, vigorous ivy gradually choking [the children's] self-worth and confidence, which could have consumed them had they not had the courage to tell someone of their abuse".

In an article specially written for the Sunday Independent, Bishop Walsh says: "The abuse scandals tarnished the name 'priest'. They have exposed a Church that got her own message wrong. Some priests have betrayed a sacred trust of privileged access to children by abusing them.

ANALYSIS:

Church authorities would have found it inconceivable to believe that their priests would behave in this way and were almost relieved to hear denials or receive professional reassurance that these priests were fit for ministry. The historical dealing with such abuse cases we now know was inexcusable in the extreme."

The Ferns Inquiry report reveals that in 1995, Bishop Comiskey was interviewed by detectives as part of a Garda investigation into the former principal of St Peter's College in Wexford, Fr Donal Collins. Bishop Comiskey told detectives that Fr Collins "continued to deny any wrongdoing".

The Ferns Inquiry reveals that, in fact, Fr Collins had admitted to Bishop Comiskey at least two years earlier that he had abused boys at St Peter's College and to the broad thrust of many of the allegations made against him. The priest, however, denied that his behaviour was criminal but in 1998 he pleaded guilty to indecent and gross assault.

The Ferns report said: "Bishop Comiskey knew from at least 1993, if not 1991, that Fr Collins had admitted to the abuse of boys at St Peter's. Bishop Comiskey told the Inquiry that he had no memory of making the statement to gardai. Fr Collins continued to deny the criminality of the charges against him to gardai, in accordance with the legal advice he received."

The report also criticised Bishop Comiskey's co-operation with the garda investigation into Fr Sean Fortune, the notorious rapist. Bishop Comiskey never spoke to detectives about the priest, saying he was never asked for a statement. Gardai said they were unable to make contact with the bishop. The Ferns Inquiry report said it was concerned at his lack of co-operation with gardai at the initial stages of their investigation.

This is a further blow to the bishop who has beensubjected to a string of damaging revelations about his personal conduct since publication of the Ferns Inquiry report last week.

This weekend, Justine McCarthy, a journalist with the Irish Independent, alleged that Bishop Brendan Comiskey threatened to rape her. He allegedly threatened the journalist as she interviewed him in his home in Wexford 11 years ago.

In yesterday's Irish Independent, Justine McCarthy wrote that the bishop was "extremely drunk" and referred to personal remarks he made about her; "such as how he would lie in bed on a Saturday morning looking at my byline picture in the paper. He recalled a journalist writing primarily about his house and his clothes and he warned me: 'If you do that I'll come up to Dublin and rape you'."

The article provides further insight into the extent of Bishop Comiskey's alcohol problem during the early 1990s, when claims ofclerical sex abuse in thediocese began to snowball.

The Ferns report offered scathing criticism of Bishop Comiskey and his predecessor, Bishop Donal Herlihy, for failing to deal properly with abusive priests.

The inquiry, which examined more than 100 complaints of clerical sex abuse, dating from the 1960s, found the Church's response to be inadequate.

It revealed that the bishop was forced to stand aside from his ministry last year, while his superiors investigated an accusation that he had behaved "improperly" towards a teenage girl. Comiskey was said to have entered the girl's bedroom and kissed her while visiting her family. An internal Church report cleared him of wrongdoing.

Two years ago, the girl made a complaint to the gardai but refused to a make a formal statement.

The Cabinet is to consider proposals for an inquiry into the Dublin archdiocese's handling of clerical sex abuse allegations, where there have been allegations against nearly 70 priests stretching back over decades.