The Archbishop of Dublin has told of his shock at finding serial paedophile priests are unable to conclusively identify new cases – because they had so many victims.
Dr Diarmuid Martin said some serial offenders could not recall the names of all their victims which in some instances numbered more than 100.
He makes the disturbing revelation in an RTE documentary detailing how the Vatican came to exert control over almost every aspect of Irish life since the foundation of the state.
Former Minister for Justice Michael McDowell looks at how the Catholic Church wielded so much power over the State for more than a century.
Dr Martin talks frankly about the scale of abuse expressing his deep concern that paedophile priests can often be unsure if they abused a victim or not when a new case comes to light.
He said: “Any organisation has to ask how is it that at a particular time there was large number of serial paedophiles.
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“I’m talking serious paedophiles, we’re talking about hundreds.
“There are cases coming forward and my people will ask, for example, a priest, if a new case comes up, from one of these historical cases, does this name mean anything to you?
“Sometimes they say, ‘Yes, I abused that person’.
“Sometimes, and this is the more worrying one, they (say) ‘the name means nothing, but I can’t say, it could have happened...
“They don’t even, they didn’t even know how many people they abused.”
Amnesty International chief Colm O’Gorman said he came back to Ireland in 1995 “to report the fact that I’d been raped by a Roman Catholic priest from the age of 14 until 17”.
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He added: “Fr Sean Fortune was the priest [who abused me]. When I came back I initially believed that I was reporting what one very bad man had done to me.
“But within I think about six weeks another five men had come forward and made complaints.”
Fortune was accused of the rape and sexual abuse of 29 boys. He committed suicide before any of the cases came to trial.
Michael McDowell reveals how the State effectively let the church off the hook when it came to paying compensation to victims.
He blasted then Minister Michael Woods’ decision to meet representatives of religious orders and do a deal to cap their liability to victims without any consultation.
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He said: “I was the attorney general at the time and neither I or members of the government in cabinet were consulted on this matter.
“The state effectively signed a blank cheque that cost us €1.4 billion in the end in exchange for a promise of a contribution of 128 million pounds from the religious orders.”
Despite two decades of horrific scandals, cover-ups and revelations the documentary concludes that church remains embedded in Irish life.
Rome V Republic is on RTE One Thursday April 11 at 10.15pm
