Father Kevin Reynolds, a parish priest in the village of Ahascragh in Galway, Ireland, received three standing ovations during mass this past Sunday. People rose and applauded when he entered the church, and they were moved to do so twice more during the service.

Reynolds’ address made special mention of the eighth commandment, “Thou shall not bear false witness against they neighbour.”

“I now know that false witness is crushing, so hurtful, it is devastating,” Reynolds said. “In fact, it does so much damage, damage which may never be fully repaired.”

Everyone knew what he meant and they applauded him for it.

This was Reynolds’ first mass in Ahascragh since Irish broadcaster RTE aired a May 23 report that falsely accused him of raping a minor while serving as a missionary in Kenya. The program Prime Time Investigates claimed Reynolds fathered a child as a result of the rape, and that he was secretly paying money to his victim.

When confronted with these allegations, Reynolds immediately declared his innocence. His solicitors then contacted the program to again declare his innocence, offering that Reynolds would take a paternity test.

The program aired anyway.

Reynolds was immediately forced to give up his ministry and was removed from his parish. Meanwhile, his solicitors filed for defamation against RTE.

Last week, Reynolds was reinstated after the broadcaster issued an unequivocal apology and declared his innocence. RTE acknowledged its defamatory report “ought never to have been broadcast.”

“RTE now fully and unreservedly accepts that the allegations made by Prime Time against Fr. Kevin Reynolds are baseless, without any foundation whatever and untrue and that Fr. Reynolds is a priest of the utmost integrity who has had an unblemished 40-year career in the priesthood and who has made a valuable contribution to society in Kenya and Ireland, both in education and in ministry,” it read.

With an apology on the record, and the defamation case set to be heard in High Court on Nov. 15, the focus shifted to Sunday’s mass. More than 600 people crowded into St. Cuan’s Church.

“I do not return with anger or resentment, with bitterness or any ill will in my heart,” he told them. “Thank God, I am free. Freed from the lies, from false allegations, baseless accusations.”

Craig Silverman is editor of RegretTheError.com and the author of Regret The Error: How Media Mistakes Pollute The Press and Imperil Free Speech.