This article is from page 3 of the 2006-04-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
THE family of abuse victim Peter McCloskey, who was found dead at his Kilkee home earlier this month, say many questions remain unanswered, following their meeting with the Bishop of Limerick on Sunday.
Peter McCloskey died on April 1, days after a mediation meeting between himself, representatives of the Clerical sex victims support group One In Four and church representatives.
His distraught family met with Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray on Sunday, a meeting described by Peter’s brother Joseph as “very challenging.”
“Yesterday was an extraordinarily difficult day. There is clearly going to be a need for some form of investigation into the events. I still feel the Limerick Diocese has failed Peter,” said Joseph, yesterday (Monday).
He said it was “very positive” that the meeting took place as it “needed to happen.”
“I think the Limerick Diocese have a huge journey to travel in understanding the implications and knockon effects of their actions,” he said.
He said his brother’s death was “no accident. It could all have been so easily avoided.”
A joint statement was issued in the wake of the meeting between the Bishop and the family.
In it the Bishop acknowledged that he completely accepts the truth of Mr McCloskey’s experience of clerical child sexual abuse. He also acknowledged that there was a failure on the part of the diocese to inform itself as to Fr Daly’s suitability for the ministry. The diocese accepts that the information available at that time should have prevented Fr Daly from taking up ministry in Limerick. In an emotional press conference last week, Mary McCloskey, Peter’s mother, called on Dr Murray to resign as Bishop of Limerick over the way in which he and the diocese handled the case.
Peter was abused while serving as an altar boy at the age of ten in the Diocese of Limerick by Fr Denis Daly, a priest who had been run out of a parish in Sydney for a “moral lapse”.
Peter had been locked in a fouryear battle with the Diocese after responding to church calls for priests’ victims to come forward and tell their stories.