Hasty Bishop Should Wait to See Report, Irish Independent, August 12, 2011

Hasty Bishop Should Wait to See Report

Irish Independent
August 12, 2011

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/hasty-bishop-should-wait-to-see-report-2846453.html

Cardinal Sean Brady in Rome

Bishop of Raphoe Philip Boyce responded in public, in a very hasty manner, to the front page story in the Irish Independent on August 11 under the headline 'Hundreds of children abused by 20 priests' and declared it to be alarmist.

Indeed, this story is very alarmist. But the bishop also states that it is inaccurate and misleading and that he intends to complain that the Irish Independent news report is therefore not in the public interest.

Interestingly, the bishop advises that he has not received the final report on what has occurred in Raphoe over a 40-year period, although he assures us that he co-operated with the audit, which checked the procedures to mitigate the risk of children being abused, that he and his predecessor devised and supervised.

There have only been three Bishops of Raphoe in the last 46 years. One is dead and two survive. The current Bishop of Derry, Seamus Hegarty, served there from February 1982 until September 1994. Bishop Boyce has been in charge since October 1995 -- a total of 29 years between them.

Would it not have been more prudent for Bishop Boyce to comment after the final report containing the underlying evidence that the Irish Independent refers to reaches the public domain within the next month?

Then the community as a whole could make a judgement on whether Ian Elliott, the report's author, has served the public interest.

Meanwhile, society could begin to understand the standard and nature of the oversight, transparency and accountability that prevailed in Raphoe under the leadership of these two serving bishops.

The Diocese of Raphoe is a component of the Archdiocese of Armagh. The publication of this report would also be an opportune time for Cardinal Sean Brady to demonstrate accountability to the Irish public in a manner that Bishop John Magee has so far failed to do after his 22-year career in Cloyne.