The Irish Times – Thursday, December 24, 2009
“The welfare of children, which should have been the first priority, was not even a factor to be considered in the early stages. Instead, the focus was on the avoidance of scandal and the preservation of the good name, status and assets of the institution and of what the institution regarded as its most important members – the priests.”
ANALYSIS: A drip, drip of episcopal resignations is adding to the difficulties for survivors of abuse and for the Catholic faithful, writes PATSY McGARRY
ONE TELLING line in Bishop Jim Moriarty’s statement yesterday will have made it extraordinarily difficult for fellow bishops and others mentioned in the Murphy report to stay on in office.
He said: “I accept that, from the time I became an auxiliary bishop, I should have challenged the prevailing culture.” It is the kernel of the issue where all in positions of authority in the archdiocese between January 1st, 1975 and April 30th, 2004 are concerned.
Bishops Éamonn Walsh, Ray Field and Martin Drennan must by now have reached the same conclusion as Bishop Jim Moriarty and Bishop Donal Murray.
While serving as auxiliary bishops in Dublin over the almost 30-year period investigated by the Murphy commission, they should have challenged the prevailing culture of cover-up in the archdiocese where clerical child sex abuse was concerned. They did not.
But Bishop Moriarty went further yesterday. He said: “The Murphy report covers far more than what individual bishops did or did not do. Fundamentally it is about how the leadership of the archdiocese failed over many decades to respond properly to criminal acts against children.”
He could hardly have stated it more clearly or accurately. And while, like the four other serving bishops and others named in the Murphy report, it took him some time to arrive at that point, his action yesterday was not without grace. “I hope it honours the truth that the survivors have so bravely uncovered and opens the way to a better future for all concerned,” he said.
It was a noble sentiment and a welcome acknowledgment of and tribute to the people at the very centre of this calamity – the brave men and women who persisted through years of pain, personal trauma and widespread disbelief to bring out their awful truth.
It serves no one that this agony be prolonged. A drip, drip of episcopal resignations piles on the pressure for survivors, for the Catholic faithful, for fellow bishops and priests, and for the church itself.
Ideally, all men in positions of authority in the church mentioned in the Murphy report should have sorted out their consciences on the matter by the date of publication, November 26th last, and resigned en masse then. At the least, they would have retained some dignity by doing so. They also had the time to arrive at the state of mind which would have allowed them stand down then.
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