'FR CALDER':THE DIOCESE of Cloyne has defended its decision to allow a priest, removed from ministry due to child safety concerns, to live in the community after a clerical abuse victim expressed worry about him.
The priest, identified as “Fr Calder” in the Commission of Investigation Report into the Catholic Diocese of Cloyne, was removed from public ministry by Bishop John Magee in 1997.
The priest, who is not allowed to wear clerical garb, lived in a home run by nuns in the diocese for almost 12 years but for the past two years has lived alone in a house in a village in the diocese.
One clerical sex abuse survivor said it was worrying to think a man assessed as unsuitable for public ministry by child abuse experts was allowed live on his own with, it seemed, little obvious supervision.
“Of all the priests mentioned in Judge Yvonne Murphy’s report, he’s the one you’d be most worried about, given he’s only in his 50s and that he’s now out on his own in the community,” said the woman, who was abused by another priest.
Gardaí, too, have expressed concern about the arrangement, especially as the man was living alone in a house with broadband access, given previous allegations about him.
However, a diocese of Cloyne spokesman said while it was not possible to go into the specifics of monitoring in every case, a regime had been put in place to monitor Fr Calder properly.
The spokesman pointed out that the commission had noted supervision was difficult but accepted the diocese was doing its best to supervise the man, and his computer usage was being checked regularly.
A regime had been instituted in the diocese under Archbishop Dermot Clifford with a lay child protection delegate, Bill Meagher, in charge, which addressed the previous regime’s failings, he added.
Fr Calder was never the subject of any direct complaint of sexual abuse to either the diocese, Garda or Health Service Executive, but has been the subject of abuse allegations in three parishes.
In his first parish in north Cork, six men made statements to gardaí that he had given them drink as young adults and three of them alleged he had sexually assaulted them, but Fr Calder denied this.
In 1997, a north Cork GP contacted then Cloyne child protection delegate Msgr Denis O’Callaghan, to tell him he had received a report that a woman had found Fr Calder in bed with her 15-year-old son.
Msgr O’Callaghan also learned from gardaí they had received a report that Fr Calder had sexually assaulted a young Traveller boy after he moved to a parish in east Cork in 1992.
In 1997, when Fr Calder moved back to north Cork, to a parish adjacent to the one in which he had previously served, locals objected and contacted Bishop Magee, who asked Fr Calder to go for assessment.
Fr Calder attended the Granada Institute in Dublin, which treats sex offenders, and he was assessed there by sex abuse experts on 10 occasions between November 1997 and December 1998.
The institute said Fr Calder denied all allegations but exhibited traits shown by people with unacceptable sexual needs and expressed doubt he would respond positively to psychotherapeutic treatment.
The institute recommended Fr Calder be removed from public ministry. In 1998, Bishop Magee moved him to an old people’s home run by nuns. He lived there without incident until 2003.
However, that year nurses became concerned that Fr Calder was accessing pornography on the internet and seeing young men in his rooms late at night. He moved to a stand-alone house in the grounds.
In 2009, the new superior of the order learned why Fr Calder was at the home.
The staff objected and the diocesan authorities decided to transfer him to a house in the village, where he now lives.
