TWENTY-ONE Irish Catholic priests sexually assaulted young boys and girls in parishes across Co Wexford over a period of 40 years, a damning report into clerical abuse revealed yesterday.

The Irish Government said that it would take immediate action to implement the recommendations of the report into the Diocese of Ferns, which is now regarded as the world’s leading centre for clerical sexual abuse.

The 271-page report catalogues 100 complaints of abuse, with one priest responsible for 26 assaults. The Ferns Report, which investigated allegations dating back to 1966, concluded that Church authorities, the medical profession and society in general failed to appreciate the horrendous damage which the sexual abuse of children causes. The report revealed that police investigations were wholly inadequate, while bishops in the Diocese of Ferns failed to take basic precautions to protect children.

Bertie Ahern, the Irish Prime Minister, told TDs (Irish MPs)during Leaders’ Questions in the Dail: “It is a catalogue of serial abuse and gross dereliction of duty in the Diocese of Ferns. Our thoughts go out to the victims and their families. The report brings out the full horror of their situation . . . and catalogues the continuing failure to respond adequately in Ferns until recent years. It’s obviously shocking that it went on for decades.”

Enda Kenny, the Opposition leader, said: “The detail is scandalous and brings shame on a civilised society. It is a shocking wake-up call to the Church and the state.”

Frank Murphy, the retired Supreme Court judge who headed the inquiry, said that steps taken by Bishop Donal Herlihy were inadequate and inappropriate. The deceased bishop did not recognise that child sex abuse was a serious criminal offence.

A second senior clergyman, Bishop Brendan Comiskey, who resigned in 2002, was also heavily criticised.

Judge Murphy found that the bishop failed to recognise the paramount need to protect children from potential abusers as a matter of urgency.

Irish police were criticised for not keeping records of informal complaints of abuse, including one allegation that ten children were molested at the altar in the parish church of Monageer. Before 1990, Judge Murphy said, there appeared to be a reluctance by individual officers to properly investigate abuse allegations. The inquiry detailed how priests were shifted from one parish to another following allegations of abuse. Bishop Comiskey was found to have been unable or unwilling to act on advice from experts regarding the behaviour of priests.

Health authorities were also criticised, with the report finding that counselling and support was only offered to ten children abused by one priest seven years after the incident.

Publication of the report was delayed for several hours yesterday because of legal arguments.

While six priests were named in the report, the other fifteen were referred to by initials only. The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children said: “This cruelty, consisting not just of sexual abuse of children, but of institutionalised silence and inaction, served not only to traumatise and hurt children but also served to make these children feel that they were to blame for the abuse perpetrated on them.

“Many of these children, now adults, still carry the emotional and psychological impact of their experiences.”

Eamonn Walsh, the Bishop of Ferns, has apologised unreservedly for the abuse.

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