Burying their heads in sand - Catholic Church and abuse

IT seems that the attitude of the Catholic Church in Ireland has undergone little, if any, change judging by the remarks made by a bishop at the funeral of a fellow bishop who was scathingly criticised by the 2009 Murphy inquiry into how the archdiocese of Dublin handled allegations of child abuse by priests.

Significantly, the papal nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown, was among the attendance at the funeral.

It defies credulity that the present auxiliary bishop, Eamonn Walsh, should tell mourners that the late auxiliary bishop, Dermot O’Mahony had suffered at the hands of “a society that at the time ignored the spirit of equity”. He claimed the former bishop had been “scapegoated”.