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	Trusted Aide Who Served As Secretary to 3 Popes Irish Times March 8, 2009 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0308/breaking13.htm For years a trusted Vatican aide and held in high esteem, Bishop John Magee was dispatched as a papal envoy in an eleventh hour bid to end the IRA's 1981 Hunger Strike. Just days before Bobby Sands died, the Newry-born cleric — the only person to serve as private secretary to three popes — personally implored Republican leaders in the Maze Prison to call off their protest. The plea failed, but its significance was not lost, and on his deathbed Sands wore a crucifix given to him by the then Monsignor. The Maze talks, which drew massive publicity, saw John Magee meet other Hunger Strikers — Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O'Hara — before he embarked on a sequence of private attempts to sympathise with families of victims of Republican terror. While in Northern Ireland he went to the funeral of Richard McKee, a Protestant Ulster Defence Regiment soldier shot dead by the IRA. The Monsignor prayed at his coffin. He met the family of Catholic Territorial Army officer Hugh McGinn, shot dead outside his home near Armagh by the INLA. In a third approach, however, efforts to build trust foundered. Protestant RUC man Kenneth Acheson was blown up by the IRA just weeks before the envoy's visit outside Bessbrook police station in south Armagh. His widow Jennifer declined to speak to Bishop Magee, one of few rejections he has faced. The trust he secured in Vatican circles was best demonstrated during Pope John Paul II's visit to Ireland in 1979 where the Co Down dairy farmer's son was an almost constant present at the Pontiff's side. Years later he spoke of the father-son relationship he enjoyed with Pope Paul VI and the more brotherly bond he experienced with Pope John Paul I and Pope John Paul II. These papal ties were so strong he was party to an infamous white lie following Pope John Paul I's death — rather than let the world know a nun had found the Pontiff dead in the early hours, a statement was issued insisting Bishop Magee had made the sad discovery. Up until the Cloyne scandal, his priesthood is best described as colourful rather than controversial. But the child sex abuse allegations and his inadequate attempts to deal with them, have all but destroyed that perception of his bishopric. After joining the Kiltegan Fathers in the 1950s, he served in the missions in Nigeria before moving to Rome and climbing the Vatican career ladder. After several posts and three terms as private and personal papal secretary he was appointed the Pope's master of ceremonies in 1982. What followed was widely regarded as a surprise posting to lead the Diocese of Cloyne — rural parishes far removed from the pressures and powers felt in the corridors of the Vatican. Some commentators believe his closeness to three Pontiffs had paved the way for a bishopric in Rome, which, as far as is publicly known, was never offered. Up until last year Bishop Magee courted little controversy or publicity — bar a row over the renovation of St Colman's Cathedral in Cobh — where on Saturday night he prayed for victims of child abuse. John Magee will stay in Cloyne. He is 72 and only a few years from retirement. His move sideways is billed by the Catholic Church as temporary, with Archbishop Dermot Clifford running the Diocese and supporting his colleague, who he has publicly backed. Although Bishop Magee wrote to the Vatican in February asking for the new role, questions will remain over whether he jumped or was pushed and whether shattered trust and a special meeting of Irish Bishops in Maynooth 11 days before the letter was sent heaped pressure on him. Within six weeks of refusing to resign and apologising over his mishandling of child sex abuse allegations, Bishop Magee had effectively offered to step aside. Once a shining light of Irish representatives in the Vatican, Bishop Magee will now devote his time to one of the darker episodes of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
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