Inaccurate Ferns reporting by the Irish Independent

The Irish Independent ran an exclusive on the Ferns Report ten days before the report was released – the story's key claims were wrong. Colin Murphy reports

Under the headline "Vatican in sex abuse cover up", the Irish Independent's lead story on Saturday 15 October was an "exclusive" expose of the then forthcoming Ferns Report.

The story claimed "the Vatican was aware of a dark catalogue of child sex abuse in Ferns for nearly 40 years" and that the Ferns Inquiry had "found that not only did they [the Vatican] know of the scandal, they did nothing to stop it".

Released ten days later, on 25 October, the Ferns Report made no finding nor cited any evidence that the Vatican was aware of the extent, or duration, of sexual abuse in Ferns.

The Vatican was cited in two cases of allegations, where the papal nuncio was informed of allegations against Sean Fortune and against Michael Ledwith.

The report's one conclusion relating to the Vatican was that there appeared to be "a failure of church authorities in Rome to educate bishops and priests about the growing awareness of child sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic priesthood which had developed throughout the 1970s and 1980s".

The article said that Inquiry chairman Frank Murphy was "critical of the lack of co-operation from the Church at most stages of the inquiry" and "says that he sometimes came up against a brick wall in his investigations".

In the report, the Inquiry said it was "appreciative of the considerable assistance provided to it by the Diocese of Ferns and its solicitors" and acknowledged "the high level of cooperation received from Bishop Comiskey throughout this process".

The report did state that some files of relevance to the Inquiry were not made available until shortly before the inquiry concluded. However it concluded that "this delayed delivery arose as a result of genuine errors of judgment".

The same article claimed the Inquiry had uncovered "evidence of a shattering saga of systematic abuse of boys at St Peter's College". Another article in the same issue cited "revelations that a gay sex ring was operating at the college".

The Ferns Report contained no evidence or either a homosexual or a paedophile "ring" at St Peter's, or of people at the college colluding in systematic sexual abuse or sexual activity.

The report's executive summary stated: "No allegation was made and no evidence was placed before the inquiry suggesting the operation or the organisation of a paedophile ring in the Diocese of Ferns or any clerical institution within that diocese."

A further article inside the paper stated: "Most shocking of all, as the report by Mr Justice Frank Murphy shows, Archbishop Alibrandi and his successors as Papal Nuncios knew of the scale of abuses, but they prevailed on Irish church leaders like Comiskey to grapple with them under the code of canon law – church law – rather than hand over the errant clerics to the Gardai."

The Inquiry reported that Alibrandi, the papal nuncio, had been alerted to the behaviour of Sean Fortune in a letter sent by parishioners. According to the report, the nuncio acknowledged their letter and stated in reply that the Vatican "had been apprised of their concerns". "There is no evidence of any further involvement by the Papal Nuncio in this matter", the report says.

Eamon Walsh contacted the current nuncio, Giuseppe Lazarotto, in 2002/03, for advice on how to have Michael Ledwith laicised. The nuncio advised him to seek the advice of canon lawyers in Ireland.

A source close to the Ferns Inquiry said the Inquiry team was "satisfied, having read the article, that a leak did not occur."