Pope Francis turns down appeal by former priest
A FORMER priest from North Cork has lost a personal appeal to Pope Francis against his dismissal from the priesthood after the pontiff found that an Irish canonical court was right to defrock him for “the crime of abusing minors”.
Dan Duane (78) had already lost two appeals against a decision by the Canonical Court in Ireland to dismiss him from the priesthood after it found that he had sexually abused five girls while serving as a priest in Diocese of Cloyne in the 1970s and 1980s.
But last year, Mr Duane made a third and personal appeal to Pope Francis after the Pope declared 2016 to be A Holy Year of Mercy. However, the Pope confirmed on Friday to the Bishop of Cloyne, Dr William Crean, that he agreed with the earlier decision to reject Mr Duane’s appeal against dismissal.
A Diocese of Cloyne spokesman said this week that “Bishop Crean can confirm that he has received the response of Rome to Dan Duane’s appeal and there is no change in the judgement that has already been made, that is to say that Dan Duane has been dismissed from the clerical state.”
According to the Diocese of Cloyne spokesman, the confirmation by Pope Francis of the earlier decision made by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith means that Mr Duane cannot present himself as a priest and is prevented from celebrating any of the sacraments.
Mr Duane had denied any impropriety at the canonical court hearing held at the Nano Nagle Centre in Killavullen, but the three priest judges ruled in March 2013 that they were satisfied to a standard of “moral certainty” and found him guilty of the complaints by the five women.
The Diocese of Cloyne spokesman confirmed Bishop Crean wrote this week to Mr Duane, who continues to live at the presbytery in Cecilstown near Kanturk, to inform him that Pope Francis had rejected his personal appeal and agreed with the earlier judgement to dismiss him from the priesthood.
A native of Doneraile in North Cork, Mr Duane, who was ordained a priest in 1963 and served in a variety of parishes in the diocese as well as at St Colman’s College in Fermoy, had been forbidden from exercising his priestly ministry and from wearing clerical attire since 2006.
Mr Duane was twice tried at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on counts of sexually abusing teenage girls in North Cork in the early 1980s but he was acquitted on the first occasion in May 2011 on the direction of the trial judge and on the second occasion in November 2011 he was acquitted by a jury.