INNOCENT PRIEST VINDICATED

Bishops Must Give Priests Due Process Says President of Priests' Council

The Irish Catholic, 14 June 2007 by Michael Kelly

The President of the National Council of Priests in Ireland (NCPI) has called on the bishops to review the process of forcing priests accused of abuse to step aside before investigating such an allegation.

Fr. John Littleton was speaking to The Irish Catholic following the conviction of a Dublin man for making a false allegation against a priest.

"Over the past number of years priests have had their names destroyed by false allegations. A man never really recovers his name following an allegation like this," Fr Littleton said.

Fr Littleton insisted that Church authorities need to address the situation where a priest is forced to step aside following an allegation with little foundation.

"This is seriously undermining the relationship and the level of trust between priests and their bishops", he said.

"The Church's guidelines say there ought to be an investigation, however in reality there is little investigation by the Church. Priests are asked to step aside when there is any form of allegation, whether it has foundation or not.

"We also have the terrible situation where a bishop may go in to a parish to announce that a man has been removed.

"He might not name the priest in question, but if there are three priests in the parish and two of them are standing beside the bishop, it doesn't take a genius to work out who has been removed," he said.

Fr Littleton said that the Church was unique in singling out people whom allegations had been made against.

"In no other profession would someone who has an abuse allegation made against them be named publicly without any due process," he said.

Thirty-four year old Dubliner Paul Anderson, was found guilty last week of falsely alleging he was abused by a priest he claimed was giving him First Holy Communion tuition more than 25 years ago.

He has been remanded in custody for sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Referring to the case Fr Littleton said that "people have to accept the consequences of their actions if they misbehave, if they tell lies there are consequences that come with that. This applies to priests who misbehave and it also applies to lay people who tell lies."

Fr Littleton said that it's going to take a few high-profile cases of people being caught lying to alert people to the dangers in denying priests due process.

He said "I know of situations with priests where no attempt was made to have an initial investigation. Priests were forced to step aside and the bishop comes to a parish to make this public - that is certainly not right.

Fr Littleton said "I have no hesitation in calling on this policy to be reviewed. The guidelines do not call for the priest's name to be made public or announcements to be made.

"This has seriously damaged the relationship between a bishop and his priests. Where a bishop misuses his authority, sometimes unintentionally, the relationship is very badly affected and priests see themselves as vulnerable, Fr Littleton said.

This case is the latest in a number of high-profile ones where false allegations have been made, including allegations which convicted Nora Wall and Pablo McCabe. Ms Wall, a former nun, and Pablo McCabe, had their convictions quashed in 2005 after the Court declared that they had been wrongly convicted.

Gardai have also found no substance to allegations of child sexual abuse made against Bishop Eamon Casey.