Colm O'Gorman

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As an adolescent in County Wexford – between the age of 15 and 17 – O'Gorman was sexually abused by Fr Seán Fortune. The abuse occurred between 1981 and 1983. [11] He became the first of Fortune's many victims to come forward and report the assaults to the Irish police. In 1998, he sued the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ferns and the Dublin Papal Nuncio, inter alia the then Pope, John Paul II, who later claimed diplomatic immunity. His case against the Catholic Diocese of Ferns was settled in 2003 with an admission of negligence and the payment of damages – in April 2003, O'Gorman was awarded €300,000 damages. [12] O'Gorman documented his lawsuit in the BBC documentary Suing the Pope . [13]

He successfully campaigned to set up the Ferns Inquiry, [14] the first Irish state inquiry into clerical sexual abuse. He founded the charity One in Four in London in 1999 and established its sister organisation in Ireland in 2002. He is a well-known figure in Irish media as an advocate of child sexual abuse victims and a commentator and campaigner on sexual violence. He was named one of the ESB/Rehab People of the Year and received a TV3/ Daily Star "Best of Irish" award in 2002, one of the Sunday Independent / Irish Nationwide People of the Year in 2003 and in the same year he was also awarded the James Larkin Justice Award by the Labour Party for his contribution to social justice in Ireland.

In 2006 O'Gorman presented Sex Crimes and the Vatican for the BBC Panorama documentary series, which claimed that the Vatican has used Crimen sollicitationis secret document to silence allegations of sexual abuse by priests and also claimed Crimen sollicitationis was enforced for 20 years by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict XVI. [15]

In 2020, O'Gorman was interviewed as part of the Australian documentary series Revelation .

Political career

In April 2006, he announced that he would stand for the Progressive Democrats, a pro-free market liberal political party, in the 2007 general election in the Wexford constituency. On 3 May 2007, he was appointed to the Seanad by the Taoiseach to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Senator Kate Walsh. [16]

He was not elected in the 2007 general election in Wexford polling 3% of the vote. [17] He was not re-appointed to the 23rd Seanad in July 2007.

Amnesty International

O'Gorman was the executive director of Amnesty International Ireland from 2008 to 2022, and often appears in the media to talk or write about human rights in Ireland and around the world. He and Amnesty called for an update to Ireland's hate-crime legislation, stating that freedom of expression does not extend to hate crime and that Irish people need to accept that "it is not enough to be anti-racist but that there is a need to be actively anti-racist." [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catholic Church sexual abuse cases</span>

There have been many cases of sexual abuse of children by priests, nuns, and other members of religious life in the Catholic Church. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the cases have involved many allegations, investigations, trials, convictions, acknowledgement and apologies by Church authorities, and revelations about decades of instances of abuse and attempts by Church officials to cover them up. The abused include mostly boys but also girls, some as young as three years old, with the majority between the ages of 11 and 14. Criminal cases for the most part do not cover sexual harassment of adults. The accusations of abuse and cover-ups began to receive public attention during the late 1980s. Many of these cases allege decades of abuse, frequently made by adults or older youths years after the abuse occurred. Cases have also been brought against members of the Catholic hierarchy who covered up sex abuse allegations and moved abusive priests to other parishes, where abuse continued.

<i>Crimen sollicitationis</i> 1962 document by the Holy Office

Crimen sollicitationis is the title of a 1962 document ("instruction") of the Holy Office codifying procedures to be followed in cases of priests or bishops of the Catholic Church accused of having used the sacrament of Penance to make sexual advances to penitents. It repeated, with additions, the contents of an identically named instruction issued in 1922 by the same office.

Brendan Comiskey, is the Roman Catholic Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Ferns. He was born in Clontibret, County Monaghan, Ireland.

Seán Fortune was a Catholic priest from Ireland, and child molester, who allegedly used his position to gain access to his victims. He was accused of the rape and sexual molestation of 29 different boys. He committed suicide while awaiting trial.

The pontifical secret, pontifical secrecy, or papal secrecy is the code of confidentiality that, in accordance with the Latin canon law of the Catholic Church as modified in 1983, applies in matters that require greater than ordinary confidentiality:

Business of the Roman Curia at the service of the universal Church is officially covered by ordinary secrecy, the moral obligation of which is to be gauged in accordance with the instructions given by a superior or the nature and importance of the question. But some matters of major importance require a particular secrecy, called "pontifical secrecy", and must be observed as a grave obligation.

The Ferns Report (2005) was an official Irish government inquiry into the allegations of clerical sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ferns in County Wexford, Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denis Brennan</span> Irish former Roman Catholic prelate (born 1945)

Denis Brennan is an Irish former Roman Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Ferns between 2006 and 2021.

Ivan Payne is an Irish Roman Catholic priest and convicted child molester.

Donal Collins was a priest of the Diocese of Ferns. He was appointed principal of St Peter's College, Wexford by Bishop Brendan Comiskey in 1988 despite his removal by Comiskey's predecessor, Bishop Donal J. Herlihy, following allegations of Collins sexually abusing pupils in his charge. The knowledge relating to the earlier allegations does not appear to have been made known to Comiskey.

Paul McGennis, a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin, pleaded guilty in 1997 to two charges of sexually assaulting a child, Marie Collins, at Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin, when he was chaplain there in 1960. He also pleaded guilty in 1997 to two charges of assaulting a nine-year-old girl in County Wicklow between 1977-79. He continued to serve as a priest until 1997 in Edenmore, Dublin.

Noel Reynolds was a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin who died in 2002. He served as curate in eight parishes including Rathcoole, parish priest of Glendalough, County Wicklow and then chaplain at the National Rehabilitation Hospital, Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin.

Thomas Naughton is a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin, who was found guilty of the indecent assault of minors. He was one of 46 priests mentioned in the Murphy Report.

Sex Crimes and the Vatican (2006) is a documentary film presented by the BBC program Panorama. It aired on 1 October 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giuseppe Leanza</span>

Giuseppe Leanza KC*HS was born in Cesarò, Italy. and ordained on 17 July 1966.

From the late 1980s, allegations of sexual abuse of children associated with Catholic institutions and clerics in several countries started to be the subject of sporadic, isolated reports. In Ireland, beginning in the 1990s, a series of criminal cases and Irish government enquiries established that hundreds of priests had abused thousands of children over decades. Six reports by the former National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church established that six Irish priests had been convicted between 1975 and 2011. This has contributed to the secularisation of Ireland and to the decline in influence of the Catholic Church. Ireland held referendums to legalise same-sex marriage in 2015 and abortion in 2018.

The media coverage of Catholic sex abuse cases is a major aspect of the academic literature surrounding the pederastic priest scandal.

Suing the Pope is a March 2002 documentary by Colm O'Gorman and the BBC which details the abusive activities of priest Sean Fortune and the response of the diocese of Ferns to his activities over the years.

The Murphy Report is the brief name of the report of a Commission of investigation conducted by the Irish government into the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin. It was released in 2009 by Judge Yvonne Murphy, only a few months after the publication of the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse chaired by Sean Ryan, a similar inquiry which dealt with abuses in industrial schools controlled by Roman Catholic religious institutes.

Éamonn Oliver Walsh is an Irish former Roman Catholic prelate who served as auxiliary bishop of Dublin between 1990 and 2019.

The Curial response to Catholic sexual abuse cases was a significant part of the Church's response to Catholic sexual abuse cases. Its policies have shifted from favoring secrecy in the 20th century to active reform and apologies in the 21st century. Under the current leadership of Pope Francis, the issue has been addressed through direct instructions to report cases of sexual abuse and revoking the former policies of secrecy.

References

  1. Thompson, Sylvia (6 May 2008). "Family danger". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 22 February 2017. Retrieved 12 February 2017. Colm O'Gorman, who left the agency in January and has since become the executive director of the Dublin office of Amnesty International.
  2. "Amnesty International Ireland Website". amnesty.ie. Archived from the original on 5 December 2006. Retrieved 30 May 2008.
  3. Cunningham, Grainne (15 March 2008). "Amnesty in fresh demand for 'torture' flight inspections". Irish Independent . Archived from the original on 26 August 2009. Retrieved 9 June 2008.
  4. "Colm O'Gorman to leave role at Amnesty International Ireland". irishtimes.com. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  5. "Our vision & work - About us". One in Four. Archived from the original on 4 July 2013. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  6. "New Ross – General Election". The Munster Express . 4 August 2006. Archived from the original on 8 October 2008. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
  7. "Seán O'Gorman". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 9 September 2007. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
  8. "O'Gorman to stand for PDs". Enniscorthy Guardian. 27 April 2006. Archived from the original on 4 October 2011. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
  9. "Election candidate hits out at line of questioning on Late Late Show O'Gorman 'duped' into discussing private life". New Ross Standard. 1 February 2007. Archived from the original on 8 October 2008. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
  10. Finnegan, Brian (14 April 2007). "OUT OF TOUCH". Irish Independent . Archived from the original on 9 January 2009. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
  11. "1 in 4 founder settles High Court action". Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ) News. 9 April 2003. Archived from the original on 12 October 2012. Retrieved 9 June 2008.
  12. "PERSON OF THE MONTH Colm O'Gorman, who fought a long battle against clerical sex abuse". Sunday Independent . 8 June 2003. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
  13. "Suing The Pope: Your comments (viewers)". BBC News. 22 March 2002. Archived from the original on 16 July 2004. Retrieved 13 August 2006.
  14. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 May 2006. Retrieved 11 August 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link).
  15. "Sex crimes and the Vatican". BBC News. 29 September 2006. Archived from the original on 7 January 2009. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
  16. "Colm O'Gorman". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 16 March 2019. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  17. "Colm O'Gorman". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 18 September 2007. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
  18. McGarry, Patsy (16 August 2020). "Human rights groups call for hate crime legislation in Ireland to be updated". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
Colm O'Gorman
Colmogorman1.jpg
Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland
In office
January 2008 (2008-01) [1]  June 2022