Unnamed priest in Irish report matches McCabe

Tag: ireland

An official report on the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in Ireland includes a 61-page section on an unnamed priest whose history matches Patrick Joseph McCabe, who is accused of molesting six boys in Dublin between 1973 and 1981.

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McCabe, 74, has also been named in two lawsuits by Humboldt County men who allege the former priest molested them in Eureka in the 1980s.

The Murphy Report, commissioned by the Irish government and released last year, says an Irish archbishop asked former Santa Rosa Bishop Mark Hurley to accept a "troublesome priest" in 1983 and that Hurley agreed.

It includes a lengthy letter from the director of a Catholic treatment facility in New Mexico, where McCabe had been classified as a pedophile just before he came to the North Coast diocese.

Noting that McCabe had been placed on Depo-Provera, a medication used to treat sex offenders, the facility's unnamed director said it had "greatly decreased his compulsive behavior."

"I also thought it was understood that (McCabe) would need to remain on this drug for the remainder of his life if he were to control this compulsive sexual acting out," the director said.

"Also, if this drug is given on a regular basis, one becomes impotent," he said. The report said there was no evidence that McCabe had been monitored to assure he continued the medication.

The New Mexico program director also discussed the difficulty of finding an assignment for McCabe.

"Of course, bishops are very cautious in terms of taking a strange priest who has had such a difficulty," he said.

-- Guy Kovner

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