The Bishop of Ferns, Most Rev Denis Brennan, has apologised again for clerical child sex abuse in the diocese.
The abuse led to the 2005 report from the statutory Ferns inquiry, which found that allegations had been made against 26 priests of the diocese involving upwards of 100 victims over the 40-year period from 1962 to 2002.
In a sermon at the Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday night in St Aidan's Cathedral, Enniscorthy, which was broadcast live on RTÉ television, he said "all of us have our own Jerusalem, the place where we have been hurt and betrayed, the place where hope has died, the place we want to get away from".
He continued: "We here in Ferns have experienced our own Calvary - most especially those who have suffered abuse by some of our priests - and the whole country is aware of it. On this most solemn night, I again apologise to those who have suffered child sexual abuse . . ."
"Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we have a choice. We can continue going away from our Jerusalem or we can, with the help of God, acknowledge it. Like the disciples, we can find a language to speak about our pain and the grace to understand and make sense of it. Our shared prayer tonight is that what understanding we have gained here in Ferns may continue to grow and inform us all as we go forward."
Emmaus was "about the lost hopes and expectations that once defined us, it's about leaving the place where everything went horribly wrong, it's about being hurt and disappointed . . . but it's also about the possibility of being healed and renewed. This touches the present day church in many ways. When Jesus died, the disciples' hopes and expectations died with him. This happens today, too - for many people, for many reasons, God has died."
This was "not always a dramatic death, like a crucifixion, it may take longer to happen but the result is just the same. Jesus does not matter in the way he used to, he has gone out of our lives. We end up on our own road to Emmaus, we are ex-disciples of a dead prophet. The words of Mary Magdalen are apt: 'They have taken the Lord away and I don't know where they have put him.'
"Jesus then ministers to their hurt and disappointment, he touches their hearts . . . that is what he did for the two disciples. In the beginning, they could not wait to get out of Jerusalem, the place where their hopes had died - now they are ready to go back."
