Abused children paid for seminary's failures

The Ferns Inquiry has cast a dark shadow over the seminary which produced almost all of the priests involved in cases of child sexual abuse in the diocese.

The inquiry found that in one random five-year period, St Peter?s College, in Summerhill, Co Wexford had 10 priests who later became the subject of child sexual allegations.

They included the notorious Fr Sean Fortune, who was reported to have abused a schoolboy and boy scouts during his training at the college but was still ordained as a priest in 1979.

The inquiry report said the failure properly to monitor and assess men during seminary training, as well as the admission of some clearly unsuitable men to the priesthood, had extremely serious repercussions for the children exposed to these priests.

St Peter?s, which was founded in 1811, was also a boarding and day secondary school for teenage boys.

It had a very good reputation nationally for its sporting and academic prowess but the presence of abusers within its ranks made it a location for the sexual abuse of children.

The inquiry report said that Fr Donal Collins, a teacher, vice-president and principal at the college, consistently abused boys over a 20-year period.

He had been removed from the college by his bishop in 1966 for inspecting the penises of 20 boys but was re-appointed to a teaching position in 1968. No records of any of the complaints made against him were kept by the college.

In the years that followed, there were allegations that he was involved in the touching of private parts, masturbation and oral sex with schoolboys.

He was sentenced to four years in jail in 1998 after admitting to acts of gross indecency at the college between 1972 and 1974.

Fr Donal Collins was defrocked from the priesthood last year by the Vatican, along with Fr James Doyle, who was also at the centre of abuse allegations at St Peter?s.

However, the inquiry found no evidence that a paedophile ring operated in the school.

?None of the complainants who presented evidence directly to this inquiry or to An Garda S?och?na, the health board or the diocese, has indicated that he or she was, at any time, introduced to, or abused by another priest at the instigation of the priest against whom his or her complaint was made.?

The boarding school at St Peter?s closed in 1997 and the seminary closed in 1998 but the secondary school continues to accept day pupils.

The inquiry team said the events discussed in its report were no reflection on the standards in the college at present.