Pressure on other bishops to follow Moriarty

PRESSURE is mounting on three serving bishops named in the Murphy report to step down from office after Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin James Moriarty announced he had offered his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI.

Dr Moriarty, 73, who served as an Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin from 1991 to 2002, confirmed he had decided to resign because he was “part of the governance of the archdiocese prior to when correct child protection policies and procedures were implemented”.

Victim support group, One In Four, said last night that every senior bishop named in the Murphy Report should quit, while abuse survivor Andrew Madden lamented the fact that neither Bishop Moriarty nor Bishop Murray of Limerick had accepted any responsibility for the cover-up of abuse by priests.