The public apology offered earlier this month to Fr Paddy McCafferty by Bishop Alan McGuckian, of the Diocese of Down and Connor, was among the most significant moments in the recent history of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
It demonstrated how much change for the better has taken place within the Church, but also provided a stark insight into some of the attitudes which were previously held by an unrepresentative section of lay and clerical figures.
To put it mildly, Fr McCafferty did not receive the support he deserved both before and, shockingly, after he gave evidence which led to the conviction of a former priest, James Donaghy, on serious sex abuse charges in 2012.
It always needs to be stressed that the vast majority of priests were and are fine individuals, who have always displayed outstanding commitment to the needs of their parishioners, but the nefarious activities of the small number who ended up before the courts had appalling consequences.
Donaghy, who went on to play a prominent and influential role in the Diocese of Down and Connor, first targeted Fr McCafferty when he was a clerical student in his late teens, and maintained a sickening campaign of abuse over many years.
Fr McCafferty eventually bravely came forward with an official complaint in 2001, but found great difficulty in seeking justice and soon realised that Donaghy had some powerful friends.
Attempts were made to suggest that Donaghy had been wrongly accused, and, despite the overwhelming evidence which began to emerge, Fr McCafferty was falsely branded in some quarters as an unreliable witness and even a trouble-maker.
An entirely bizarre episode followed when Donaghy eventually was forced to stand down from the priesthood in 2004, and instead took up employment with an aviation firm, dealing with passengers and cargo in Ireland, Scotland, England and India.
Part of his duties involved checking tickets at departure gates at Belfast International Airport, although the company said it was unaware that Donaghy, who by that stage was on sick leave, was facing allegations.
The Irish News then received a wave of angry letters after revealing Donaghy’s new job in 2005, with former parishioners complaining about our story and expressing their strong backing for him.
One of the many correspondents said: ”We pray and look forward to the day when Fr Donaghy will be exonerated and hope your paper will be as enthusiastic about front-page coverage.”
It took a further six years before Donaghy eventually stood in the dock at Belfast Crown Court, accused of a string of sex offences against Fr McCafferty, and two other victims, one who had also previously trained to be a priest and the other a former altar boy.
He denied everything, and put the three injured parties through the ordeal of a four-week trial before he was found guilty on 23 charges and, in February, 2012, jailed for 10 years.
Even after his conviction, a senior priest in Down and Connor wrote to The Irish News, denouncing our reporting on the Donaghy case as “ribald sensationalism” and saying that our editorial comments were an attempt to “wallow in anti-clerical verbiage”.
Referring to a paper launched by the Rev Ian Paisley which had ceased publication more than three decades previously, the priest, who has since died, said that our approach had been “more hostile to the Church than the Protestant Telegraph ever was”.
He went on to say that, together with other unidentified Catholics, he was proposing the motto of The Irish News since 1891, Pro Fide Et Patria, should be “formally withdrawn”.
It all vividly reflected the kind of thinking which was specifically rejected by Bishop McGuckian in his statement of August 1 when he said that Fr McCafferty had displayed “courage and leadership in the face of incredulity, disbelief and animosity on the part of many, including clergy of the diocese”.
After studying a review into the Donaghy scandal by the leading KC Tony McGleenan which was delivered earlier this year, Bishop McGuckian took the unprecedented step of declaring that previous related diocesan statements were either “ill judged” or “unfair”.
The bishop took the opportunity to “apologise sincerely to all the victims in that case and all cases”, and encouraged anyone who has suffered abuse to follow Fr McCafferty’s example in coming forward, saying that the diocese would ensure that its response is “victim-centred, professional and just”.
Perhaps the most compelling aspect of the diocesan statement was the inclusion of a photograph of a young and clearly vulnerable Fr McCafferty, taken at a time when his ordeal was at its height.
He has been open about his struggles since then, but it is heart-warming that he has has recovered sufficiently to develop his ministry as a hugely respected parish priest in the Ballymurphy area of west Belfast today.