Time for us all to stand up
TO PARAPHRASE poet Robert Frost, two roads diverged in the yellow woods and the bishops can’t travel both. Bishop Donal Murray has chosen the road less travelled and in doing so has put victims of abuse, clergy and laity and, indeed the good of the Church itself, ahead of any personal considerations.
Bishop Donal is a learned and likeable pastor and will be sorely missed for his theological prowess which was without equal among his fellow bishops. He was also a man who had a gentle and quiet outreach to some of the most vulnerable and poor in Limerick.
Yet he has resigned because he made a mistake in relation to child protection which was deemed “inexcusable” by the Murphy Commission. That mistake was made 20 years ago, and by resigning and, indeed, having his resignation accepted by the Vatican, a new bar in terms of responsibility and accountability in the Catholic Church has been raised. It is this which brings the bishops collectively to Frost’s crossroads: if Bishop Murray has to resign for a mistake he made in dealing with a child protection issue 20 years ago, how many other bishops have made mistakes in the last 20 years in the way they have handled child abuse allegations in their dioceses over that period?
The Vatican spokesman said that Bishop Murray resigned under the terms of Canon Law, namely Canon 401.2 which allows bishops to resign on the grounds of ill health or for “some other grave cause”. Clearly the Vatican holds that a mistake made in handling child protection going back 20 years is a “grave cause”.
So, as the bishops continue to stand at the crossroads, the situation on the ground continues to move apace as a white heat of anger is building among ordinary Catholics and many clergy for leadership and action.
For the other auxiliary bishops named in the Murphy report, the situation is irretrievable and this appears to be slowly sinking in, with some quicker than others. Bishop Jim Moriarty has signalled that, while he did no wrong in relation to his handling of cases, he is nevertheless prepared to step down if that is the right decision for the Church and for victims.
Bishops Ray Field, Martin Drennan and Eamonn Walsh have yet to demonstrate that their thinking has moved to this level.
The remaining bishops named in the Murphy report are good men, honourable men but they were part of a culture which was corrupt and covered up child sexual abuse: there is only one path that makes any sense for them to take. If Bishop Moriarty goes, they all will have to go. As the Papal spokesman put it to journalists, Bishop Murray went for the good of the Church and for a greater serenity, in other words to bring peace to this disturbing saga.
As for the bishops, and indeed any psychologists, teachers, gardaí and so on, who over the last 20 years have not handled child protection properly, they need to examine their consciences in light of Bishop Murray’s resignation. There can be no equivocation.
What happens next? This probably will fall at the feet of Archbishop Martin who seems to be bearing far too much of the burden on progressing this issue. There have been reports of personality divisions among the bishops and it would be unfair to Dr Martin if all the attempts to bring a sense of reality to the other bishops’ view of this unfolding crisis fell at his door.
The Vatican needs to be seen to be handling this on a daily basis.
However, we are left with bishops trying to reform a system run by bishops. If bishops could get something so important such as child abuse so badly wrong, what other areas of governance have suffered from the abuse of power, corruption and cover-up? Bishops recognise the need for lay involvement in the governance of child protection in the Church, it is time they recognise the same need across all areas of governance.
Dominican preacher and author Fr Timothy Radcliffe, addressing the priests of Dublin in two talks last weekend, clearly stated that the abuse of power in the Catholic Church in the English-speaking world was from the Vatican down to the parish sacristan. Who appointed the Archbishops of Dublin? Who mishandled allegations of child abuse and actively covered them up? Or used mental reservation in order not to inform the Garda fully?
To have a credible long-term future, the Irish Church needs radical surgery. We don’t need 32 bishops and 26 dioceses: Austria has a larger Catholic population and has 12 dioceses. For centuries the local church appointed its own bishops, long before the Pope or the Vatican got involved.
For too long Irish people blamed their colonial past for a lethargic ability to stand up to the powerful. Now, at a time when it is clear that the state and the Church failed miserably in the protection of the small and vulnerable in our society, it is time for Irish clergy and lay people to demand within the Church and where appropriate among state organisations, such as the HSE, that accountability and responsibility be taken to begin the long process of ridding this Republic of the curse of child sexual abuse.
* Garry O’Sullivan is the editor of The Irish Catholic newspaper.
