DUBLIN ABUSE REPORT

It is widely reported that the Bishop of Galway Bishop, Martin Drennan does not intend to resign. Bishop Drennan states that he wasn’t asked to appear before the Commission, but it should be remembered that the Commission only investigated a representative sample of allegations against 46 priests - it found allegations against 172 (102 of which were inside the terms of reference). We don’t know who was involved in the handling of those other allegations because the point of investigating a representative sample is to establish the culture, practices and system that existed between 1975 and 2004. That system, which Bishop Drennan was a part of for 7 years covered up the sexual abuse of children and caused the sexual abuse of more children.

Bishop Drennan states that by the time of his appointment in 1997 child protection structures were already in place. The Framework document of 1996 which he refers to was flawed and Cardinal Connell told the Commission that it was not binding in canon or civil law so he could follow only those guidelines he wanted to follow – and the Commission makes it very clear that the guidelines were in place but were not being implemented. Change only began to occur with the appointment of a new head of Child Protection Services Mr Phil Garland in 2003.

Bishop Drennan advises against anger and adds insult to injury when he describes our calls for accountability as vengeful. He says he met with 60 priests from the Diocese of Galway and seems to enjoy their full support. I have today emailed the Bishop and asked him to formally invite 60 victims of sexual abuse by priests in Dublin to come and meet him in Galway to express their views.

I reiterate my call for Bishop Martin Drennan to resign.

END - 27/12/2009

DUBLIN ABUSE REPORT

I welcome the resignations of Bishop Eamonn Walsh and Bishop Raymond Field late yesterday evening. They were Bishops in the Archdiocese of Dublin during a time when the Commission of Investigation found that the sexual abuse of children by priests was covered up by the Archdiocese and other Church authorities.

I am grateful to each of the Bishops who has resigned since the publication of the Murphy Report. It is an important part of the healing process to know that those who were in positions of power and responsibility at a time when such abuse was taking place are accountable today for their actions or inactions when such abuse was brought to their attention.

It is important for me to live in a society where those who have subordinated the welfare of vulnerable children to the betterment of any institution learn that such behaviour is not acceptable.

I reiterate my call for Bishop Martin Drennan to resign.

DUBLIN ABUSE REPORT

I welcome the resignation of Bishop James Moriarty. He was a Bishop in the Archdiocese of Dublin during a time when the Commission of Investigation found that the sexual abuse of children by priests was covered up by the Archdiocese and other Church authorities.

I note that both Bishop Murray and Bishop Moriarty have resigned for the good of the church and without accepting any responsibility for the cover up of child sexual abuse by priests. This is not surprising to me. In the Murphy Report:

Paragraph 1.15 tells us that all considerations, including the welfare of children, were subordinated to an overall priority which was the good of the church and,

Paragraph 1.59 tells us there was a disturbing failure to accept responsibility on behalf of some of the bishops who gave evidence.

It is plain to see that both of these findings of the Commission are still true of the Catholic bishops today.

I reiterate my earlier call for Bishops M Drennan, E Walsh and R Field to resign following publication of the Murphy Report.

END - 23/12/2009

DUBLIN ABUSE REPORT

It is now 3 weeks since the Commission of Investigation published the Murphy Report into the handling of allegations of child sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin. The Commission found that the sexual abuse of children by priests was covered up by the Archdiocese and that the structures and rules of the Catholic Church were found to have facilitated that cover-up.

Bishops Murray, Moriarty, Drennan, Walsh and Field, were auxiliary bishops of Dublin during some of the period (1975-2004) covered by the Commission of Investigation and remain bishops within the Irish Catholic Church in Ireland today.

I repeat my call for Bishops Murray, Moriarty, Drennan, Walsh and Field to resign immediately. They joined with other Bishops to issue a statement on 10th December 2009 to say that they are shamed by the extent to which child sexual abuse was covered up in the Archdiocese of Dublin, yet individually they claim to have done nothing wrong.

Their continued presence in office is an insult to every child sexually abused by a priest in the Dublin Archdiocese, they display a contemptible level of arrogance and a shocking lack of humility.

The Catholic Church in Ireland has totally failed to respond at all appropriately to the findings of the Murphy Report.

END - 16/12/2009

DUBLIN ABUSE REPORT

Since the publication of the Murphy Report on Thursday 26th November 2009 the Catholic Church in Dublin and elsewhere has engaged in a process of damage limitation and of attempting to undermine the findings of the Report. This is a cause of considerable anger and deep distress to many victims of abuse including myself. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Bishop Eamon Walsh and Bishop Wille Walsh have all issued statements and comments in recent days which only serve to add insult and injury to those of us who have been sexually abused by priests and who have given evidence to the Commission of Investigation.
I am also shocked to see priests and ‘lay people’ gather together and issue a statement in support of Bishop Donal Murray. In the 14 years since I first went public I have never seen such people gather together and issue a similar statement in support of a single victim of child sexual abuse by a priest.
There was talk recently about a Service of Atonement at the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin planned by more ‘lay people’ in response to the Ryan and Dublin Reports. This service had the full support of Archbishop Martin providing it had the support of victims. I have now written to the organisers and told them not to bother, as any words expressed by bishops or anyone else at such a service would be utterly meaningless.
END 01/12/2009

DUBLIN ABUSE REPORT

This evening the Taoiseach Mr Cowen issued his first ‘statement’ in response to the publication of the Murphy Report published last Thursday. Mr Cowen said it was up to the religious institutions and their members to determine the "appropriateness" of any individual to hold ecclesiastical office.

Given that Bishops Murray of Limerick, Moriarty of Kildare and Leighlin, and Drennan of Galway are patrons of most of the schools in their Dioceses and have been found in the Murphy Report to have collectively put the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church and the preservation of its assets above the safety, welfare and protection of children, it is wholly inappropriate to say that it is a matter for themselves whether or not they continue to hold such office.

Clearly the undue deference shown to bishops and priests by agencies of the State, as detailed in Murphy Report, is not at all over.

END 28/11/2009

DUBLIN ABUSE REPORT

I wish to condemn in the strongest possible terms the leaking of some details of the Commission of Investigation’s Report into how allegations of child sexual abuse against priests were handled by the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin and agencies of the State between 1975 and 2004. It is wholly inappropriate that those of us who have worked so hard over the years to ensure that the Government held this Inquiry should now be reading extracts of the Report in a Sunday newspaper before we have even been notified of a date and time for publication.

I am also particularly annoyed as I wrote to Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern TD in July of this year requesting that I be given an embargoed copy of the Report 24 hours before its eventual publication and this request was refused. It is inappropriate that any victim should have been denied this request only to then read details of the Report in today’s Sunday Independent.

DUBLIN ABUSE REPORT

I very much welcome the Judgement from Mr. Justice Gilligan in the High Court this afternoon. It is now clear that this judgement requires that only references to the person identified in Chapter 20 have to be removed from the Report but most of this important Chapter will be published. It is vital that both the actions of the former Eastern Health Board and the Gardaí be investigated alongside the actions of the Catholic Church in their handling of allegations of child sexual abuse against priests and publication of most of this Chapter lends itself to this.

It is now imperative that the Government publish this report before the end of next week at the latest, as publishing any later than that would be inappropriate given the upcoming budget on 9th December and I urge Justice Minister Ahern to attend to this matter without delay or fault.

DUBLIN ABUSE REPORT

I wish to condemn in the strongest possible terms the government's decision to delay publication of the Report into sexual abuse by priests in Archdiocese of Dublin by referring the matter back to the High Court today. The government has had this report since July 2009. It has had plenty of time to read it, detail its concerns over ongoing criminal proceedings and present them to the High Court on two separate occasions.

Last Thursday the High Court issued a very clear order regarding publication which a child could have understood and have actioned within an hour, but a full week later Minister Barry Andrews announces that there is 'a material fact that wasn't brought to the attention of the High Court', and so they are having to go back. If the government had made a competent presentation to the High Court originally it would not have to now return to the court with its material fact it didn't present first time round.

I am reminded of the incompetence and snail's pace of progress I observed as I watched the Department of Justice fumble and stumble its way through every stage of setting up the Dublin Commission of Investigation as a full three and a half years went by. It beggars belief that this government has found yet another example of its incompetence to parade in front of the country as if it wasn't already plain for all to see.