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	McNamara's Actions Caused 'Severe Damage' By Dónal Nolan Kerryman December 2, 2009 http://www.kerryman.ie/news/mcnamaras-actions-caused-severe-damage-1960871.html IRELAND-- FORMER Bishop of Kerry, Kevin McNamara, 'allowed' convicted absuer Fr Tom Naughton to 'severely damage' more victims through his apparent sloth in reacting to the complaint of a victim's family, the Murphy Report found. He also restored notorious predator, Fr William Carney, to 'priestly faculties despite his having pleaded guilty to charges of child sexual abuse in 1983 and despite the fact there were suspicions about him in relation to numerous other children,' the Report states. The Clare native, who was Bishop of Kerry after Eamon Casey from 1976 to 1984 was one of the leading voices of conservative Catholicism in Ireland through the divisive period of liberalisation in the Irish State during the 1980s. "If we really care for the family we need to face up to the damage now being done to the moral fibre of our society by the spread of the contraceptive mentality," he wrote on the eve of his appointment as Archbishop of the Dublin diocese in September 1984. His apparently clear moral purpose was cast into grave doubt by the release of the Murphy Report this week. He served as Archbishop for only three years — until his death in 1987 — but in that time he presided over a culture within the Church that did everything in its power to 'protect the wrong-doer'. Archbishop McNamara was also criticised for his promotion of abuser Fr Ivan Payne to the position of ViceOfficialis of the Marriage Tribunal, despite knowing of complaints against the infamous paedophile and knowing his predecessor Archbishop Ryan had refused the priest that position. The report also said it was 'unacceptable' that Archbishop McNamara did not return to a Wicklow parish to further investigate allegations made against Fr Tom Naughton (who was twice convicted of child sex abuse). "It is unacceptable that, when the Donnycarney complaints were being discussed by the bishops, he, they and Archbishop McNamara did not return to the Co Wicklow parish and carry out further investigations." The Report also found that McNamara's apparent sloth in dealing with Naughton allowed further abuse to happen: "Archbishop McNamara was slow to respond to the complaint from the Rundles despite the priest admitting sexual abuse. As a result, Fr Naughton was allowed to continue his abusive behaviour for several years thereby severely damaging more victims. It was only when they went to the Gardaí that they finally received satisfaction." In a damning indictment of the culture under McNamara and others in the archdiocese in the 1980s, the Report said it did everything to protect the wrongdoer. "Fr Naughton's case is symptomatic of the Dublin Archdiocese's attitude to child sexual abuse in the 1980s. Until the problem became so great it could not be hidden, the archdiocesan procedure was to do all in its power to protect the wrongdoer, while almost completely ignoring the effect of this abuse on the victims." The Commission did find, however, that the Archdiocese did act 'correctly in arranging for Fr Naughton to live with his former Society when the Ringsend complaints were made. Dismissing him then would have led to a situation where he could have continued his activities unsupervised'. The Archbishop's record was also criticised for his treatment of complaints made against another convicted sex abuser, Fr William Carney.
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