IN our editorial of 24 December we stated that in 1993 Bishop James Moriarty had “learned the priest identified as Fr Edmondus in the Murphy report was sexually abusing children in the Dublin diocese.”

Nobody should take any satisfaction at this time of year from Dr James Moriarty’s decision to resign as Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin. It is a personal setback, but it had unfortunately become necessary. He had unwittingly become implicated in child abuse, even though he was accurate in saying that he did nothing wrong.