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	Catholic Group Calls for Bishop to Resign By John Cooney Irish Independent December 22, 2008 http://www.independent.ie/national-news/catholic-group-calls-for-bishop-to-resign-1582877.html A radical lay Catholic group has called for the immediate resignation of the Bishop of Cloyne, Dr John Magee, in the wake of a damning sex abuse report. The 'Voice of the Faithful' lobby, which campaigns for more accountability in the Irish Catholic Church, said that if Bishop Magee fails to step down, Pope Benedict should exercise his supreme authority by demanding his resignation. The pressure on Bishop Magee (72) to quit follows the publication of an internal church report that found child protection practices in the Co Cork diocese were inadequate and dangerous, thereby potentially exposing vulnerable young people to further harm. The report, by Ian Elliott, the chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding Children, censured the former secretary to three popes over his handling of a series of complaints of sexual abuse made by five people against two priest rapists in the diocese. Bishop Magee has said he intends staying in office to implement best practice child protection procedures in the diocese which he has headed for 21 years. But last night Sean O'Conaill, the acting coordinator of 'Voice of the Faithful' said that this response from Bishop Magee was not good enough and he should go. "The NBSC report on the management of two child protection cases in the diocese of Cloyne shows clearly that, three years after the Ferns report in 2005, an Irish bishop had failed to ensure that the safety of the children of his diocese was paramount in the minds of all those answerable to him for the safety of Catholic children," Mr O'Conaill said. "Other children were thereby still being endangered at this late date -- despite the guidelines supposedly adopted by all Irish bishops in the wake of the Ferns report. We therefore call upon him to resign this office immediately. In the event of his failing to do so, we call upon the Holy Father, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, to exercise his supreme authority to request the resignation of Dr Magee."
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