Christianity- a Pedophile Heaven

Irish bishop to resign over 'inexcusable' cover-up of child abuse

The Irish Catholic bishop at the centre of a clerical child sexual abuse scandal was expected to resign in Rome Monday after his handling of complaints of abuse in Dublin in the 1980s and 1990s was condemned as "inexcusable."


Dear Christian, have you raped a child today?
Or murdered one in Iraq or Afghanistan?
The Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray travelled to Rome Sunday evening and is expected to tender his resignation to the Pope Monday.

This follows severe criticism of him in the Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin which looked at how child sexual abuse complaints were dealt with by the authorities from 1975 to 2004.

The commission, headed by Judge Yvonne Murphy, has said it has no doubt that clerical child abuse was covered up by the Archdiocese and other church authorities.

The report, known as the Murphy report, found that Bishop Murray reacted "inexcusably" to one known case of clerical child abuse while he handled a number of other complaints and suspicions badly.

The Bishop of Limerick's initial response to the report was to say that he would not resign and that his "conscience was clear."

An enraged reaction from the public and abuse victims was not enough to convince the bishop that he should go.

It was until Saturday night when Cardinal Sean Brady called on all named in the Murphy report to "act soon" in light of the commission's findings, that it became clear that the bishop would resign.

The report details a litany of abuse perpetrated by priests against more than 300 victims.

A Dublin man who was sexually abused by a priest when he was an altar boy was one of the victims calling for Bishop Murray should resign.

Mervyn Rundle was abused by Father Tom Naughton in the mid-1980s and his abuse was directly attributable to Bishop Murray's failure to deal properly with an earlier complaint he had received about the priest.

According to the report, the church's strategies in refusing to admit liability often added to the hurt and grief of many victims of abuse.

The commission also slated the excuses put forward by the church that the abuse was hidden and took church authorities by surprise.

It states that the vast majority of priests turned a blind eye to abuse although some did bring complaints to their superiors.

The report accuses Irish police of "connivance" with the Catholic Church in effectively stifling one complaint, and allowing the perpetrator to leave the country.

http://www.earthtimes.org