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	More Than One Bishop May Offer Resignation By Paddy Agnew and Patsy McGarry Irish Times December 8, 2009 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2009/1208/1224260298231.html VATICAN CITY -- MORE THAN one Irish bishop may submit their resignation to the pope this week, as Vatican officials confirmed Cardinal Sean Brady and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin have been asked to a meeting with the pope on Friday to discuss "the painful situation" in the Catholic Church in Ireland. The Vatican's senior spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi announced yesterday the pope had invited Cardinal Brady and Archbishop Martin "to exchange information and evaluate the painful situation of the church in Ireland following the recent publication of the Murphy commission report. Senior Vatican Curia figures with specific competence in this area and the papal nuncio to Ireland will attend." Vatican insiders yesterday suggested Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray will not be the only Irish bishop to offer his resignation. They say Friday's meeting is a direct intervention from the Holy See, and has been called by an increasingly frustrated Pope Benedict XVI. The sources say the pope will argue the Irish clerical sex-abuse crisis has gone on far too long and will urge Irish church leaders to find a definitive exit from the crisis. Vatican insiders say Bishop Murray may not be the only bishop to resign. Some Vatican sources have mentioned Dublin auxiliary Bishop Eamonn Walsh as another bishop who may go and they predict Bishop Murray may be the first in a series of resignations. Asked if Bishop Walsh had travelled to Rome, as a Vatican source had suggested yesterday, a spokeswoman for the Dublin archdiocese said he was in Dublin. As of last night, there were no indications of any imminent resignations, the spokeswoman said. Bishop Walsh has been an auxiliary bishop in the Dublin archdiocese since 1990 and was once seen as a likely successor to Diarmuid Martin as Archbishop of Dublin. Before becoming a bishop, he was secretary to the archbishop from 1985 and so would have held key positions in the archdiocese for much of the period covered by the Murphy commission report. Bishop Murray is scheduled to attend a meeting with the Vatican's Congregation of Bishops, the Vatican "department" which oversees the appointment or resignation of bishops. Given that today is a public holiday in Italy, he is likely to have to wait until tomorrow before they meet the congregation. Responding to Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin's expression of "deep disappointment" at the lack of a response by the pope to the Dublin diocesan report, Holy See sources said until the Holy See received a formal complaint from the Government via its diplomatic mission in Rome, a Vatican response would be "inappropriate".
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