The Irish Times – Tuesday, December 29, 2009
PATSY McGARRY Religious Affairs Correspondent
THE “HONOURABLE thing for the Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan to do is to resign,” Maeve Lewis, chief executive with the One in Four group, has said.
Calls have been made for the bishop’s resignation also through newly-launched online and Facebook petitions.
Ms Lewis said that the bishop “has to take collective responsibility”.
She asked: “How many children were abused in Dublin between 1997 and 2005 when he was in a position of authority?”
She said:
“It will be immeasurably damaging to both survivors and the Catholic Church if this process is dragged out indefinitely. We call on all concerned to provide real moral leadership by finding the courage to acknowledge responsibility for their actions and inactions and to resign immediately.”
At this Christmas time, she called on “members of the Catholic Church to stand up for the survivors of clerical abuse and to find ways, either individually or as congregations, to convey your feelings to the leadership of the church”. Reflecting on 2009, she described it as “a terrible year for Ireland.
The Ryan report and the Murphy report have revealed a horrifying world where vulnerable children were tortured and abused. The children were not invisible, but many people stood aside and failed to intervene.
“This happened in our lifetimes, and we all must assume responsibility. At the end of the day the Catholic Church is composed of ordinary people, many of whom are outraged by the behaviour of the hierarchy.”
A spokeswoman for Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said he would not be commenting further on the Murphy report until the New Year.
In Dublin, Catholic social activist Brendan Butler has launched an online petition calling on “all bishops and those in positions of authority in the Irish Catholic Church who failed, like Bishop Moriarty, to challenge the ‘prevailing culture’ of cover-up of clerical sex abuse to offer their resignations immediately.”
Its website is www.ipetitions.com/petition/brendan13/
The Malahide-based retired teacher has also set up a petition on Facebook under the heading “Call for resignations of Irish Catholic Bishops involved in cover-up.”
On Christmas Eve Mr Butler attended the Mass at which Dublin Auxiliary Bishop Ray Field announced he was offering to resign. Before the 10pm “midnight” Mass began at the Carmelite convent in Malahide, local parish priest Fr Gerard Tanham said that at its end Bishop Field would make an announcement. At the conclusion of the Mass, Bishop Field read a short statement and made no further comment.
Brendan Butler said that “if Bishop Ray had not announced his resignation I would have publicly challenged him in church. He said he wouldn’t be making any further statement, but he should give a reason – otherwise it looks like he was pushed out”.
Survivors don’t need the calibre of representation we’ve been subjected to for the last 10 years as they’ve proven their lack of moral fibre by their backhanded double dealing and hypocrisy. FOI requests are going in by the bucket load to find out how much exactly has been given to these groups and how the expenditure was allocated. I’d be tidying my back yard if I were a group leader. I would also leave the Jersey survivors choose their own representative and not have any foisted on them! Their Justice Minister has rattled a few cages of his own and can work the system from within so I’d be leaving him to it. This year is the year of action and we will prove our own mettle. We can and will speak for ourselves. These groups are generating a culture of dependency so that their cosy little numbers will be retained. No more I say!
Portia wrote:
“Most people are not awake to these hidden truths yet.”
Most IRISH people, Portia!
@ Mick Waters:
Mick, I think you need to carefully read this article by Maeve Lewis once again. For example, she refers to the “leadership” of the Catholic Church. What leadership? Anyone who looks to the Catholic Church for moral guidance is one seriously fucked-up individual!
After you’ve carefully read Ms. Lewis’s article, then maybe you’ll take a closer look at her “support” group One in Four…
Andrew Madden has more integrity than the rest of them put together, at least he has no illusions about the Catholic Church!
Paddy
Bishop Martin Drennen should be sacked. All of these bishops that have resigned will receive a large pension . any other person failing to do their jobs properly sacked . kick the lot out of Ireland. They have no allegiance to the people of Ireland
May
Paddy, the very day the Roman Church took over our sovereign nation, honour became a thing of the past.
Our Brehon Justice system was based on honour- but the barbarian Romans did all they could to destroy our Justice system and created their own JUST US system.
The Roman church and the Dept of justice still use a system of the invaders.
The lawyers, etc swear allegience to the BAR in london and the priests etc swear allegience to the Vatican.
Now the other depts swear allegience to EU-
So, in fact we are ruled from outside our own “sovereign Land”
Most people are not awake to these hiidden truths yet.