'Priest got schoolgirl pregnant' 

Belfast Telegraph 

Sunday, 21 March 2010   

The crisis-hit Catholic Church faces TWO new scandals today. 

We reveal how a Tyrone priest at the centre of a schoolgirl rape scandal was investigated by police for allegedly fathering the child of a 16-year-old in the late 1990s.  

However, the girl did not want to proceed with a case against Fr Joseph Quinn, who paid another alleged victim £45,000. He has previously been cleared on sex charges and denies all wrongdoing.Today another Catholic bishop, Bishop Joseph Duffy of Clogher Diocese, also admits he put children at risk by failing to inform police about a paedophile priest.  

He now accepts he should have told police back in 1989 about allegations of abuse against Enniskillen priest Fr John McCabe — SIX years before he eventually appeared in court on abuse charges.  

Bishop: I put kids at risk 

Belfast Telegraph 

Sunday, 21 March 2010  

A Catholic Bishop last night confessed to Sunday Life that he put kids at risk by failing to inform police about a paedophile priest. 

Bishop of Clogher Joseph Duffy is now facing calls to quit immediately over his handling of the Fr John McCabe child sex abuse scandal.  

This scandal is the latest to hit the Catholic Church and comes as the Pope yesterday apologised to all victims of clerical abuse in Ireland.  

Bishop Duffy was told in 1989 that filthy Father McCabe — then a teacher and priest at St Michael's College, Enniskillen — had abused a young boy in his care.  

But Bishop Duffy did not report the matter to either the police or social services.  

In 1995 – SIX years later – McCabe, who by then had quit the priesthood, was jailed for 20 months for 13 indecent assaults between 1979 and 1985.  

But before he went to prison the pervert was able to use a reference from St Michael's to get a new job teaching children at Hazelwood College in north Belfast.   

IOL NEWS HEADLINES

IrelandOn-Line

21/03/2010 - 10:51:51

Another bishop has admitted being involved in an investigation into clerical abuse claims, during which victims were made to sign oaths of secrecy.

It has emerged that the Bishop of Clogher was involved in an internal Church investigation into clerical sex abuse allegations during which children and their parents were made to sign oaths of non-disclosure.

In a statement to the Sunday Business Post, Bishop Joseph Duffy admitted he did not report the allegations to the Gardai when he first became aware of them in 1989.

It follows the recent revelation that Cardinal Seán Brady was present at meetings in the 1970s where two teen victims of Fr Brendan Smyth were made to sign vows of secrecy.

The pope makes no reference to church cover-ups in his letter, which has been criticised by survivors' groups as not going far enough.

Meanwhile it has been reported today that an all-Ireland diocese-by-diocese audit of the handling of abuse allegations, to be carried out by the Church-funded National Board for Safeguarding Children, will begin after Easter.