A parish priest in his 70s stood aside from the ministry in Elphin diocese at the weekend. In a statement read at Masses in churches where the man served, Bishop Christopher Jones said the priest had agreed to step aside pending the outcome of an investigation.
This followed a similar announcement in the Tuam diocese last Thursday.
Bishop Jones did not say what was being investigated in Elphin but emphasised it had not been established whether allegations made were true and the fact that the priest agreed to step aside did not indicate any guilt on his part. It is understood the allegations relate to the mid-1960s, when the priest was in the United States.
In Tuam archdiocese it was disclosed at the weekend there had been abuse allegations there against 27 priests, 19 of whom were priests of the diocese, since 1940. Seven civil actions had been settled, at a cost of €327,000.
Archbishop Michael Neary said eight of the priests against whom allegations had been made had stood aside from ministry, four had been the subject of criminal charges and three had been convicted. He emphasised no priest currently serving in the archdiocese was being investigated about abuse allegations.
He also explained why it was only last week he had asked a parish priest to step down, although he had been aware in recent weeks the priest was being investigated in connection with allegations of rape.
He was satisfied there was no issue of public safety involved in leaving the priest in ministry but that "on Thursday last, the confidentiality of a Garda investigation was breached in a newspaper article" and "it was apparent then that all serving priests of the diocese could now come under suspicion."
In Wexford, the Apostolic Administrator of Ferns diocese, Bishop Eamonn Walsh, was applauded by a large congregation at the town's Church of the Immaculate Conception when he read a pastoral letter responding to the Ferns report.
He welcomed and accepted the findings of the report and praised the work of Mr Justice Frank Murphy and the inquiry team for "their painstaking and dedicated work".
He acknowledged those "who were so brave and courageous" to recount their stories to the inquiry.
He described as "inexcusable" the abuse of children by some priests of the diocese and sincerely apologised to all who had suffered. There were, he said, "hard lessons" to be learned.
He thanked the people for their support. "You have been let down and your task of leading your children in the faith has been made more difficult," he said.
In Monageer, where it was alleged the late Fr James Greenan abused young girls preparing for Confirmation, the congregation was told at Mass yesterday that the Ferns Inquiry report had shown the Church, as a body, had failed to live up to the moral standards it professed.
Parish Priest Fr Bill Cosgrave said sometimes the institutional Church chose self-preservation before the principles of truth and justice.
In Clonakilty, Co Cork, Fr Gerard Galvin refused to read Bishop John Buckley's pastoral letter at weekend Masses, as it "didn't go far enough", he said. "There was no real sense of atonement [ in it]," he said, and added it was "more PR than reality".
A spokesman for the Dublin archdiocese emphasised yesterday that the 67 priests there against whom abuse allegations had been made referred only to diocesan priests. It did not include priests of religious congregations who may have abused there.
