Ronald Bennett (priest)

Last updated

Ronald Bennett OFM (born 1935, died 2024) was a Franciscan friar and a former spiritual director, sports master and bursar of Gormanston College, County Meath, Ireland, who was convicted of sexual assault against some of his pupils. His faculties for hearing confession and celebrating mass publicly have been withdrawn. Bennett lived at Dún Mhuire, Killiney, County Dublin. [1]

Contents

Conviction

Bennett joined the staff of the college in 1963 and his duties also included organising teams of altar boys. He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 29 June 2006, to six sample charges of sexually abusing four pupils, three of whom were boarders, at the college on dates from 1974 to 1981.

The abuse began with Bennett touching them outside their clothing, culminating with the abuse taking place in some cases with both parties totally naked. Some of the abuse took place in Bennett's office, while conducting sex education lessons, to which victims were summoned over the college tannoy system and direct access to which was controlled by a set of red and green lights outside his office door (a standard feature of all offices in the college at the time)

The Irish Times reported that the Franciscans in charge of Gormanston College during Bennett's tenure were made aware of abuse but did not remove him. [2]

Richard Lanigan, a past pupil of Gormanston College, said the priest's behaviour was common knowledge among the boys in the 1970s, although they were not aware of the extent of the abuse. [3] "Some of the priests were lovely men, dedicated to their students," he said, "but this went on and adults who should have known better didn't want to go there. The neglect of these children by the other priests is every bit as bad as what Bennett did to them." [3] Dr Lanigan has set up a website to provide an independent forum for former students to discuss how abused past pupils might be supported. [3]

Punishment

Bennett received a five-year suspended sentence on 26 July 2006 and entered into a bond of €1,000 to keep the peace for five years and undertake to abide by the Franciscan code of practice. [4] On 5 March 2008 The Court of Criminal Appeal increased the sentence to 2½ years imprisonment and 2½ years suspended. [5]

See also

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brendan Smyth</span> Northern Irish Catholic priest and convicted sex offender

Brendan Smyth O.Praem was a Catholic priest and convicted sex offender from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who became notorious as a child molester, using his position in the Catholic Church to obtain access to his victims. During a period of over 40 years, Smyth sexually abused and indecently assaulted at least 143 children in parishes in Belfast, Dublin and the United States. His actions were frequently hidden from police and the public by Roman Catholic officials. Controversy surrounding his case contributed to the downfall of the government of Republic of Ireland in December 1994.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congregation of Christian Brothers</span> Religious community within the Catholic Church

The Congregation of Christian Brothers is a worldwide religious community within the Catholic Church, founded by Edmund Rice.

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">Gormanston College</span> Catholic secondary school in County Meath, Ireland

Franciscan College Gormanston is a school operated and managed by the Irish province of the Order of the Friars Minor. The college operates under the trusteeship of the Minister Provincial and Definitory of the Franciscan Province of Ireland. In September 2014, the school moved from being a fee-charging school to the free school scheme.

Vincent Mercer, OP is a Dominican priest and former headmaster at Newbridge College. He is a convicted sex offender, guilty of dozens of counts of sexual abuse of children. He was also imprisoned from 2013 to 2016 for sexually assaulting a child between 1986 and 1994.

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.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salesian College (Rupertswood)</span> Independent secondary school in Australia

Salesian College is an independent Roman Catholic, co-educational secondary school located in Sunbury, Victoria, Australia. The College is a member of the Sports Association of Catholic Co-educational Secondary Schools (SACCSS).

This page documents Catholic Church sexual abuse cases by country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual abuse scandals in Catholic orders and societies</span>

As distinct from abuse by some parish priests, who are subject to diocesan control, there has also been abuse by members of Roman Catholic orders, which often care for the sick or teach at school. Just as diocesan clergy have arranged parish transfers of abusive priests, abusive brothers in Catholic orders are sometimes transferred.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual abuse cases in the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin</span>

The sexual abuse cases in Dublin archdiocese are major chapters in the series of Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in Ireland. The Irish government commissioned a statutory enquiry in 2006 that published the Murphy Report in November 2009.

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.

Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in Canada are well documented dating back to the 1960s. The preponderance of criminal cases with Canadian Catholic dioceses named as defendants that have surfaced since the 1980s strongly indicate that these cases were far more widespread than previously believed. While recent media reports have centred on Newfoundland dioceses, there have been reported cases—tested in court with criminal convictions—in almost all Canadian provinces. Sexual assault is the act of an individual touching another individual sexually and/or committing sexual activities forcefully and/or without the other person's consent. The phrase Catholic sexual abuse cases refers to acts of sexual abuse, typically child sexual abuse, by members of authority in the Catholic church, such as priests. Such cases have been occurring sporadically since the 11th century in Catholic churches around the world. This article summarizes some of the most notable Catholic sexual abuse cases in Canadian provinces.

The Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Europe has affected several dioceses in European nations. Italy is an exceptional case as the 1929 Lateran Treaty gave the Vatican legal autonomy from Italy, giving the clergy recourse to Vatican rather than Italian law.

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.

The sexual abuse scandal in the English Benedictine Congregation was a significant episode in the series of Catholic sex abuse cases in the United Kingdom. The dates of the events covered here range from the 1960s to the 2010s.

References

  1. ↑ , Irish Independent, 5 July 2006. (accessed 2008-07-07)
  2. ↑ "Management aware of abuse but did not remove priest". The Irish Times. 7 July 2006. (accessed 2008-07-07)
  3. 1 2 3 "Dignity of a sex predator", Irish Independent, 14 March 2007. (accessed 2008-07-07)
  4. ↑ "Priest who abused boys gets suspended sentence". Irish Independent. 27 July 2006. (accessed 2008-07-07)
  5. ↑ "Court increases priest's prison sentence", RTÉ News, 5 March 2007. (accessed 2008-07-07)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.