Theologian backtracks on call for Bishop of Galway to resign

A LEADING theologian who called for all bishops named in the Murphy report to resign has backtracked, insisting the Bishop of Galway should not be forced from his post.

In the wake of the Dublin archdiocese revelations last month, Dr Vincent Twomey, professor emeritus of moral theology, said all bishops who failed to prevent the sex abuse scandals should leave their posts.

In a number of public statements, the theologian warned the refusal of the officials to resign was causing untold damage to survivors of abuse and lay members of the Catholic church.

Since the initial comments were made Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray has been forced to offer his resignation to the Vatican, a move repeated by the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin Jim Moriarty and auxiliary bishops Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field.

As a result, Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan is the only remaining bishop named in the Murphy report yet to step down.

However, while Dr Drennan’s insistence that he should not leave his office has outraged clerical sex abuse survivor groups, Dr Twomey has now stated that his church colleague should not be forced to resign.

“Since I am on record as calling for the resignation of the bishops mentioned in the Murphy report, I should have expressly excluded Dr Martin Drennan,” Dr Twomey wrote in a letter sent to newspapers yesterday.

“The present bishop of Galway was not found guilty of either negligence or cover-up by the Murphy commission.

“The one substantial reference to Dr Drennan in the report (51.1-51.2) indicates that when he was an auxiliary in Dublin, he acted appropriately in the case in question.

“The report concludes, ‘the archbishop acted correctly in immediately addressing the concerns and suspicions in this case’.

“This amounts, if I am correct, to a recommendation of Dr Drennan’s initial response with regard to a young priest acting suspiciously with young males,” the senior theologian added.

Dr Twomey’s comments came after Dublin City Council announced that a major public park in the centre of the capital is to be renamed as a direct result of the clerical sex abuse scandal.

The local authority has confirmed that Ryan Park, which is located in the expensive Merrion Square district, will undergo a name change by the end of this year. The site was originally church-owned but was given to the local authority in 1974 by the late Archbishop Dermot Ryan.

However, after Archbishop Ryan was heavily criticised in the Murphy report over his handling of abuse complaints, Dublin City Council voted in favour of removing his name from the park.

Labour councillors Mary Freehill and Kevin Humphreys tabled a motion calling for the name change to be considered.

The call was unanimously supported by 40 councillors who attended the meeting, with a report expected from council management by the end of February.

Archbishop Ryan presided over the Dublin diocese for 12 of the years which were scrutinised in the Murphy report.

According to the document, between 1972 and 1984 he “failed to properly investigate complaints” against six priests suspected of wide-scale child sex abuse, and appeared to prevent information on the matter being made available.