A CATHOLIC theologian has suggested there would be greater justice in all of Ireland’s Catholic bishops resigning than just those Dublin auxiliary bishops named in the Murphy report.
“In a way, it would be the only fair outcome,” Prof James Mackey told The Irish Times last night. “Why pick on the ‘little fellows’?” he asked.
He noted how, in a statement following their winter meeting last December, the Irish bishops said of the Murphy report findings: “We are shamed by the extent to which child sexual abuse was covered up in the archdiocese of Dublin and recognise that this indicates a culture that was widespread in the church.”
That such mass resignations had not followed was “just another form of hypocrisy”, Prof Mackey said.
Meanwhile Deirdre Kenny of the One in Four group said reaction from abuse victims was one of “astonishment” at the pope’s refusal to accept the bishops’ resignations.
People were “hugely angry and upset,” she said. “Some are considering taking the legal route. They believe that is all the church understands.”
Bishop Eamonn Walsh attracted universal praise, including from abuse victims, for his co-operation with the investigation into allegations of clerical sexual abuse in Ferns when he was apostolic administrator in the diocese.
However the discovery in summer 2005 that he had not delivered for investigation files on 10 priests there accused of child sex abuse almost brought down the Ferns inquiry.
In July 2005 a Ferns abuse victim contacted One in Four with information which led to the discovery that Bishop Walsh, then apostolic administrator in Ferns, had not handed over the files. Five of the cases were found to be directly relevant to the Ferns inquiry’s terms of reference.
The inquiry team, chaired by former Supreme Court judge Frank Murphy, considered ending its investigation altogether, even though the draft report of its findings and recommendations was completed. It would have meant that a new statutory inquiry into Ferns would have to be set up and that the investigation process would have to begin all over again.
A plenary hearing of the Ferns inquiry took place on September 2nd, 2005, to consider the situation. Faced with a choice of dissolution or going ahead, the inquiry team decided on the latter course.
By doing so, they accepted that absence of files on the 10 priests “was due to a regrettable error on the part of the diocese and did not constitute the withholding of co-operation on its part”.
As it had no time then to fully investigate the cases of the relevant five priests, a summary of each was simply included in an appendix to the Ferns report, published in October 2005.
Bishop Walsh was praised in the report for his proactive approach to child protection in the diocese generally. It found he had “taken steps to overcome most, if not all, of the factors militating against an appropriate response to allegations or suspicions of abuse” and that he ensured the Ferns diocese operated “to a very high level of child protection”.
Meanwhile a letter to the pope protesting at his not accepting the resignations of bishops Walsh and Field is to be handed in at the papal nunciature in Dublin this afternoon by Catholic social activist Brendan Butler. It will take place during the protest planned for there at 3pm.
In the letter Mr Butler says that Pope Benedict’s refusal to accept the resignations “caused extensive hurt, outrage and further scandal not alone among the survivors of clerical sex abuse but also among the Catholic faithful here in the Dublin archdiocese”. He also says it “undermined the apostolic authority of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who has been an outstanding witness for integrity in his just reaction to the Murphy report”.
He recalls: “I witnessed the resignation of Bishop Ray Field and to me his decision was a result of deep reflection and a belief he was following a rightful conscience. His decision along with Bishop Walsh ought to have been accepted by you.