Irish priest who fathered child resigns from diocesan duties

Published: 2006-01-19

DUBLIN, Ireland (CNS) -- A 73-year-old Irish priest who fathered a child with a woman half his age has resigned from diocesan duties, said Bishop John Kirby of Clonfert, Ireland. In a statement issued by the Catholic Communications Office Jan. 17, Bishop Kirby said that Jan. 6 "a priest on loan to the Clonfert Diocese confirmed to me that he had recently fathered a baby with an adult woman. Since then, I have met both the priest and the mother. "I hope that the priest, who has ceased to work in the diocese, the mother and all those involved be given appropriate time and space to plan for their respective futures. I consider this to be a private matter and as such I will make no further comment," he added. The priest was identified in the Irish Independent newspaper as Father Maurice 'Mossy' Dillane, a former missionary serving as a curate in the rural Galway parish of Woodford-Looscaun. In the 1980s and early '90s he served in the San Antonio Archdiocese at Prince of Peace Parish.

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