The Bishop of Achonry, Most Rev Thomas Flynn, has said he has not been in contact with the gardaí since allegations were made to him of child sexual abuse by a priest, Father Peter Kennedy, in his diocese.
Bishop Flynn said he hadn't reported the matter to the gardaí as the man making the allegations had given gardaí a statement.
According to the 1996 bishops' guidelines, a report should be made "without delay" to the senior ranking police officer for the area "in all instances" where it is "known or suspected" child sexual abuse has taken place.
It was revealed last week that following a High Court settlement on July 28th last, €325,000 was paid to Mr Brendan Shannon arising from allegations that in 1982 he was abused at his home in Cloonloo, Co Sligo, by Father Kennedy, a priest with St Patrick's Missionary Society, an order based at Kiltegan, Co Wicklow. The money was paid by the order.
The priest is being investigated in connection with allegations by 18 people and is said to be in South America.
Bishop Flynn said recommendations in the guidelines about reporting allegations were based on "the assumption that we are the first to hear about them".
"When dealing with adults, why should I go to the guards with allegations when there are responsible people there with evidence? They are not simple people," he told The Irish Times.
"Their mother is a teacher. Members of the family have a secondary education."
Father Kennedy had disappeared years before, he said, and he "couldn't see him as a threat to anybody in the area". He also said that, where victims of abuse were concerned, "the media causes greater suffering than the original \ incident. That is the view of quite a number of people, including victims". It was their view, too, that, in dealing with such cases, the media had already made up their mind when priests were involved.
"They \ put a twist on what they hear," which he described as "anti-clerical".
He had not apologised to the Shannon family arising from the abuse, as "it is awfully hard to apologise for something you had nothing to do with".
The bishop said he had been unaware of Father Kennedy's presence in the Cloonloo or Gurteen parishes until after he had left, nor had he given permission for the priest to be there.
But according to Mrs Eílis Shannon, mother of Brendan, Father Kennedy had been in the area for well over a year.
Bishop Flynn said he became aware of the allegations when contacted by Canon John Doherty, parish priest of Gurteen, last November. Canon Doherty had been told by Mrs Shannon. The bishop disputed the account of a meeting he had with the Shannon family last November. Present were Bishop Flynn, Canon Doherty, Mrs Shannon, and her sons Joe and Eamonn.
Mrs Shannon recalled that the Bishop "never even said he was sorry. He said the case was none of their business. It had nothing got to do with them because he was an order priest". Eamonn Shannon recalled "tensions were extremely high at the meeting".
In 1997 a nun who had been counselling Brendan Shannon contacted the diocese's delegate Father Greg Hannan who, under the 1996 guidelines, deals with such cases. The nun was asked by Mrs Shannon not to name her son to Father Hannan. In April 2002, however, after seeing the BBC Suing the Pope programme on abuse in Ferns diocese, Father Hannan was contacted again, and he contacted Kiltegan.
Bishop Flynn told the Shannons on his visit he had no recollection of hearing about the allegations before being told by Canon Doherty some days previously.
Joe Shannon recalled that he then "put it straight to him ... somebody somewhere in the diocesan authorities was told. He [the bishop\] said the diocese was not taking any responsibility, that it had no responsibility for Kennedy's actions, so I asked him who was paying Kennedy's wages." Bishop Flynn said the Shannons' account was not his recollection. Canon Doherty said it was not his, either.