Letters signal deep divisions in archdiocese

A SERIES of strongly worded letters between Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and a former auxiliary bishop of the Dublin Archdiocese are pointing to deep divisions among clergy in the archdiocese over the fallout from the Murphy report.

The letters, which were obtained by the Irish Catholic newspaper and published in full today, reveal strong anger on the behalf of retired auxiliary bishop, Dermot O’Mahony, over Archbishop Martin’s ready acceptance of the Murphy Commission’s conclusion that a culture of cover-up dogged the archdiocese’s handling of abuse complaints.

According to the newspaper’s editor, Gary O’Sullivan, the former auxiliary bishops have been “trying to garner support for their assertion that they were operating in a very different context and doing the best they could”.

“There is definitely an undercurrent in the archdiocese at the moment. It is the Old Guard versus the New Guard,” said Mr O’Sullivan.

In early December, Archbishop Martin accused Bishop O’Mahony of showing insufficient remorse for his inept handling of child abuse complaints and asked that he refrain from publicly administering the Sacrament of Confirmation within the diocese.

A subsequent letter from Bishop O’Mahony to members of the priests’ council and other clergy accuses the archbishop of failing to support his priests. As part of this correspondence, he also enclosed earlier letters that had been exchanged between him and the archbishop.

“Unlike the Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, who defended the gardaí and said that ‘it was a different time then’, the archbishop did nothing to counteract the statement of the Murphy report, widely circulated in the media that ‘the majority of clergy knew and did nothing’,” he wrote.

The bishop calls on priests to challenge “the acceptance by media and current diocesan policy that a “cover-up” took place and says the archbishop’s description of the handling of abuse cases at Crumlin Hospital as “inexcusable” was “unfair”.

In an attempt to rally the support of fellow clergy, he challenged the archbishop by writing “you were out of the diocese for 31 years and had no idea how traumatic it was for those of us who had to deal with allegations without protocols or guidelines or experience in the matter of child sex abuse”.

Bishop O’Mahony also strongly criticises the archbishop for failing to publicise a letter that he sent to the archdiocese’s director of communications, prior to the publication of the Murphy report, which made a full apology for his role.

According to Mr O’Sullivan, the Dublin Archdiocese says the letter of apology was seen by Archbishop Martin.