About 140 people gathered in St Patrick's Church in Gorey for the requiem Mass for Father Sean Fortune. The Mass was concelebrated by Canon John Gahan, Father Lar O'Connor and Father Hugh Byrne. Father Fortune, who had been facing child-abuse charges, committed suicide last week in his home at New Ross, Co Wexford.
The chief mourners were Father Fortune's brother, Tom, his sister, Ms Mary Cowman, and Tom's wife, Julie. The congregation was largely made up of the elderly, mainly women, clerics and the press.
Mr Tom Fortune, who is a businessman, an administrator with the local credit union and a member of a voluntary group working with the unemployed was, with his sister, the subject of most of the congregation's sympathies.
Bishop Brendan Comiskey, who had returned from the United States where he was preparing for the St Patrick's Day celebrations, asked the congregation to believe in the mercy of God.
In an indirect reference to those who had said they had been abused by the priest, Bishop Comiskey spoke of "another group of people" who had been looking to the judicial process to "alleviate their plight".
He said he acknowledged their pain on behalf of the Christian community and on his own behalf and offered the services of the diocese "to help in whatever way we can".