VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
Catholic Herald [London, England]
July 24, 2024
By Declan McSweeney
A joint investigation by the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ and the Irish Mail on Sunday has revealed that the Vatican and Irish bishops did not notify the public that the reasons for the suspension from ministry of the late Bishop Eamonn Casey related to child sexual abuse allegations in both England and Ireland.
The public have long believed that the bishop’s suspension related to his relationship with American divorcée Annie Murphy, mother to his son Peter. The bishop, who spent much of his early priesthood in English parishes, resigned as Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh and as Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora in 1992, after the media became aware of the relationship with Murphy.
So while the Vatican could be said to have acted responsibly in regard to child safeguarding, its failure to explain the reasons for Casey’s suspension has resulted in another public relations disaster, as well as giving the Church’s critics fresh ammunition in being able to cite another example of clerical wrongdoing about which, yet again, full transparency by the hierarchy was not forthcoming.
Casey died in 2017 at the age of 89, a decade after being suspended from ministry. During that time, there were even widespread calls on the Irish bishops to remove the suspension – an unsuspecting public argued that his relationship with Murphy, while inappropriate, was with a consenting adult and that it paled into insignificance compared to the actions of paedophilic clergy.
However, Casey’s own niece, Patricia Donovan, has given a public interview to the Irish national broadcaster about being raped by her uncle as a young girl.
The well-known Passionist priest Father Brian D’Arcy has this week, in an RTÉ interview, criticised the Vatican’s silence on the matter. He said that while the Papal Nuncio at the time, Charles Brown, had known not to attend the bishop’s funeral in Galway, he had not notified the President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, who did attend the funeral.
Public anger at the revelations has been so widespread that several callers to the station’s Liveline programme demanded that the body of the bishop to be removed from the crypt of the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas. One caller, Séamus Heaney, described the cathedral as a “temple of evil” and said he would not set foot in it, other than for funerals, unless the bishop’s body was removed. Another caller compared Casey to Satan.
Eamonn Casey was for many years one of Ireland’s best-known bishops. Appearing regularly on TV chat shows, his flamboyant personality and his role as chairman of Trócaire, the bishops’ overseas development agency, gave him a high profile.
Ordained for the Limerick diocese in 1951, the future bishop spent a number of years in Slough and London working with Irish emigrants and was one of the founders of the homeless charity Shelter, before becoming bishop of Kerry in 1969. He held that post until 1976, when he was appointed to Galway.
His 1992 resignation was seen at the time as a bombshell for Irish Catholicism and the first major development in its ongoing decline; the resignation led to public mockery, exemplified in the Christy Moore song Casey.
Afterwards, Casey left Ireland to work in a parish in Ecuador but later moved to England, working in St Paul’s parish in Haywards Heath.
He returned to Ireland in 2006 but was not permitted to say Mass in public. RTÉ has revealed that Casey flouted this ruling on various occasions and was reprimanded by the then Bishop of Galway, the late Martin Drennan.
The RTÉ documentary Buried Secrets features an interview with Ian Elliott, former CEO of the Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children, who describes Casey as a “sexual predator”.
Commenting on Patricia Donovan’s account of being raped by her uncle at the age of five and abused for many years after, he said her account was “entirely credible”.
The documentary revealed that while the Galway diocese had stated in 2019 that it had only received one allegation against Casey, it has now confirmed the records of five people who complained of being abused by him.
It also revealed that the Limerick diocese paid over 100,000 euros to one of the bishop’s accusers.
Both Bishops Brendan Leahy of Limerick and Michael Duignan of Galway have expressed solidarity with those who have come forward about their experiences at the hands of Eamonn Casey.
“They deserve our respect, belief and support. Without commenting on any specific allegation, I have no reason to disbelieve any of the allegations made,” the Bishop of Limerick told RTÉ.
The Vatican confirmed to the broadcaster that Casey was removed from ministry in 2007 following allegations of child sexual abuse.
The initial complaint was made in 2001, while he was working in the diocese of Arundel and Brighton. However, as RTÉ reports: “Arundel and Brighton has confirmed that the complaint was inexplicably lost and was not reported to the British police. As a result, Bishop Casey remained in active ministry for a further four years.”
While complaints in Ireland were made to the Gardaí, the country’s Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to prosecute. Nonetheless, the Vatican felt the allegations were sufficiently grave as to warrant his suspension from ministry.
The Requiem Mass for the Galway bishop involved 61 priests and 11 bishops, reports Extra.ie. Its article quotes Patricia Donovan as stating that she had planned to end her own life because of what had happened to her. But the occurrence of the funeral, in a sense, saved her life as it made her determined to reveal the truth about what Casey had done.
It has also emerged that Casey arranged to have his nephew, Father Michael Donovan, transferred from the Limerick diocese to Galway, despite multiple allegations of sexual abuse against Father Donovan himself.
Donovan was removed from ministry in 1995 and later became a teacher of English in Poland. Those who made complaints against him included his own sister, Patricia, who is the same woman who came forward in relation to being abused by Casey, her uncle.
Donovan died in 2018. The Limerick diocese now says he should not have been transferred.