Telegraph (United Kingdom)
December 17, 2009
_IrishChurch_ph_Murray.jpg "Bishop Donal Murray: I know full well that my resignation cannot undo the pain that survivors of abuse have suffered") |
| Bishop Donal Murray: "I know full well that my resignation cannot undo the pain that survivors of abuse have suffered" |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ireland/6833245/Irish-church-sex-abuse-scandal-Bishop-of-Limerick-resigns-over-damning-report.html
Donal Murray, the bishop of Limerick, has resigned after a government inquiry strongly criticised his handling of a paedophilia scandal.
The Vatican confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI had accepted Bishop Murray’s resignation, after the bishop announced that he was stepping down.
Bishop Murray is the first senior church figure to resign over the devastating Murphy report into the sexual abuse of children by priests in the Dublin archdiocese.
The inquiry uncovered cases of child sex abuse committed by more than 170 clerics stretching as far back as 1940, and a subsequent cover-up involving both church leaders and police.
The 69-year-old Murray, an assistant bishop in Dublin at the time, was accused of mishandling complaints and failing to reinvestigate suspicions against a paedophile priest.
He apologised at mass to his congregation at St John’s Cathedral in Limerick.
“I humbly apologise once again to all who were abused as little children," he said.
"To all survivors of abuse, I repeat that my primary concern is to assist in every way that I can, on their journey towards finding closure and serenity.
“I know full well that my resignation cannot undo the pain that survivors of abuse have suffered in the past and continue to suffer each day.”
The bishop resigned under a Canon Law provision that allowed him to leave his post before the mandatory retirement age of 75, when they become “unsuited” to continue.
He will keep his title but relinquish his day-to-day diocesan duties in Limerick.
The government-sanctioned investigation concluded that four other serving bishops and five retired bishops had played a role in the cover-up.
The Pope was “deeply disturbed” by the affair, according to the Vatican, and has had meetings with senior Irish clergymen to discuss a possible response.
Andrew Madden, one of the victims of abuse, welcomed Bishop Murray’s announcement, but called for the swift resignation of the four other bishops who were all implicated in the Murphy report.
Jim Moriarty, Martin Drennan, Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field were all based in Dublin at the time of the cover-up, yet remain in their positions.
Bishop Drennan, of Galway, and Bishop Walsh, the auxiliary bishop of Dublin, have already said they have no intention of tendering their resignation to the pope.
"Their continued presence in office is an insult to every child sexually abused by a priest in the Dublin Archdiocese,” Mr Madden said.
“They display a contemptible level of arrogance and a shocking lack of humility."
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