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Wednesday, 29 January, 2003, 13:59 GMT
Read your comments
Fr Fortune disguised his intent from all around him
As a distant observer, it's easy for me to say that the cover-up is worse than the abuse itself. By ignoring the allegations and then covering up, the church effectively encourages perverts such as Fortune. Through their inaction, I guarantee that such abuse is still going on today. I shudder at the thought.
I would prefer issues like this to be dealt with in a less biased and emotive manner. The programme makers clearly had a particular agenda, which was to use the incident of one particular criminal priest to try to denigrate the whole Catholic Church. Whilst both condemning abuse, and the mollycoddling of abusers, I object to the way this matter has been portrayed. It is a fact that abuse occurs in all churches, and all organisations in the same proportions as in the Catholic Church, but this was never stated. Abuse was presented as a purely Catholic problem.
It is about time that the Catholic Church accepted responsibility for the action of its priests and protected its people rather than them. Secrecy is a wicked, wicked sin.
I do understand people who have been brainwashed by any religious doctrine - why they cannot perceive any wrong within their religious hierarchy; but surely with the overwhelming evidence against any cleric doing wrong, people must open their eyes and see the truth. If not then the evil of any religion is being condoned, which in itself is the epitome of evil.
Gaynor, England
A mixture of rage and excitement at your film
Rage: The appalling behaviour of the Catholic Church Who knew exactly what was going on (and no doubt continue to let it happen) Excitement: At the bravery of the men involved and their subsequent actions which I hugely applaud.
This has been a long time coming, I think many of us brought up in a Catholic environment knew things were not right for so long. Be it corrupt or abuse. How awful for so many children to suffer before quite simply loss of money put the fear of god in the church. It has lost the trust and respect of so many people (and rightly so).Not just by this but for many years gone by. All the best of luck to Colm and all the others, our thoughts are with you.
Colm O'Gorman and the other men in the programme are like beacons of light in Ireland today. Their sense of truth and strength of character is so welcome, so inspiring, so uplifting. We only realise how starved of truth that we have all become when we see men like this speaking out. Congratulations and good luck to them, and to the producer and presenter of the programme.
Graham Bolton, British Citizen, living in the Netherlands
Thank you for highlighting abuse of children, by who does not matter. It is us "kids" that live with it for all of our lives, but why show these programmes so late at night? Child abuse needs to be stopped, please show these programmes before 9.00 pm so that the people being abused are able to identify and realise there is help. I am 54 it is only 20 years since I "talked". He was my dad; my family still do not believe me.
I think what Colm and the lads have done for Ireland is revolutionary and I praise every one of these brave men. I go to Mass most Sundays but still find the behaviour of the senior figures in the church despicable. I hope that the people here will be able to distinguish between our God and the corrupt evil church that covered up the multitudes of abuse that so many boys suffered. I am from Wexford and know there are many silent victims still too frightened to come forward. Thank you lads and please ignore any negative, hurtful comments from backward, blinded parishioners who obviously have no concept of what sexual abuse, clerical or not, involves.
Marion McLean, Scotland
Colm O'Gorman, I know undergoes a very big trauma in his life for what happened in the past years with a priest - it will never leave his memory. But he cannot sue the Pope for what the priest did to him because it was not the pope that offended him. The Holy father detests such acts, so therefore he cannot be a party to it - but never the less - let him tender the tape he has to the Pope and then wait for the reactions for he knows better ways of handling such cases.
I hope Colm and all the others get justice. I was very moved by the programme - I had seen some of the stories on the news when I was in Dublin. Good luck and I will say a prayer for them all.
This has been going on for years. I knew of it over 50 years ago .
Anon., UK
It takes a great act of courage to disclose any form of sexual abuse, when the abuser is a priest protected by his church courage does not go far enough. Well done to all those brave men who came forward and support for the families of those who found it all to terrible to contemplate.
One of the most distressing and shameful programmes I have ever seen. The catholic church should be more interested in caring for it's flock than covering up for the foul, odious people who commit abuse whilst pretending to be servants of god! All power to Colm for speaking out, a braver man I've never seen!
Donal Roche, Ireland
This Man,Colm O`Gorman is mad...what can he do to a Holy-man of God? The Pope was not there when the incident happened...so suing Pope or making unnecessary comments against him, is very stupid! May God have mercy on Gorman!
The priority this appalling situation is given was summed up by the response of the Archbishop of Dublin.....'But I have so much to do...!' And as one of the contributors to the programme so astutely pointed out - what would have happened if there had not been the overwhelming tide of adverse publicity to which the Vatican and senior bishops in individual countries have been forced to respond?
Ciaran Ryan, Ireland
My greatest wish for the 21st century is to witness the dissolution of the Roman Catholic church. It was my greatest wish for the last century too. Why? Because I was sent to Catholic boarding school when I was four and was sexually assaulted by a nun. That, and the psychological sadism, has scarred me for life. And while I'm glad that paedophile priests have been exposed, my experience would be less isolating if more details were exposed about paedophile nuns. I have only seen one television programme about this.
There are two major flaws in the Catholic system - equating morality with a form of self-interest (i.e. seeking a reward in the afterlife) and equating morality with obedience to a glorified alter ego (namely God). It's not surprising that this system results in the selfishness and hypocrisy which leads to the abuse of children.
I am from Wexford - the Catholic Church here in Ireland did not give O'Gorman any time after he was raped by a Catholic priest. If a Man did this to a woman he will be locked up, why do members of the Catholic Church get off free? No one here goes to mass like people did here about 10 or 15 years ago. We
Disclaimer: The BBC will put up as many of your comments as possible but we cannot guarantee that all e-mails will be published. The BBC reserves the right to edit comments that are published.
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