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Bishop Comiskey's successor delay

Added on December 28, 2004


Tuesday December 28th 2004

THE Catholic Church in the Diocese of Ferns will not appoint a successor to Dr Brendan Comiskey, who resigned more than two years ago over his handling of clerical sex abuse, until the Ferns Non-Statutory Inquiry is finished.

When Dr Comiskey resigned on April 1, 2002, following the screening of the television documentary, Suing the Pope, caretaker bishop Dr Eamonn Walsh was appointed to oversee the running of the diocese.

It is thought the earliest date for announcing a new bishop will be March, when final findings of the inquiry are presented to Health Minister Mary Harney.

Dr Walsh has since met with victims of clerical abuse in parishes throughout the diocese, including those of the late Fr Sean Fortune, where he has apologised unreservedly for the Church's past inaction.

The diocesan office has not yet made any official comment on the moves to find a successor. However, priests in the diocese have been asked for their views on the best person to fill the position.

A number of priests have been tipped for the post, including front-runner Rev Joseph McGrath, PP in New Ross, who would be viewed as an ultra conservative, along with Monageer's parish priest, Rev Fr William Cosgrave, who would be seen as a liberal thinker.

Both are extremely academically qualified. An outside runner is Fr Denis Brennan, parish priest of Taghmon.

Sarah Murphy

? Irish Independent
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/ & http://www.unison.ie/

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