ALMOST FIVE years ago Bishop Donal Murray warned a gathering of clergy that dealing discreetly with allegations of sexual abuse “can lead to failure to take the necessary steps”.“We must not, like the priest and Levite in the Good Samaritan, pass by on the other side, failing to see somebody’s suffering because we are too wrapped up in our business to notice,” he said.
Yesterday Bishop Murray himself became a casualty of this failure to act when he resigned following stinging criticism in the Murphy report of his handling of child sexual abuse concerns.
It marks the end of a career of a man who at one point was the youngest bishop in Ireland and, later, was favourite to become archbishop of Dublin.
Born in Dublin 1940, he was the son of the chairman of the ESB, Dr Thomas Murray, and received his early education at St Therese’s national school at Mount Merrion, and Blackrock College.
He studied for the priesthood at Clonliffe College, St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and the Angelicum University in Rome, where he was awarded a doctorate of divinity.
On his return he was ordained a priest in 1966, at the age of 25, going on to develop a deep interest in theology. He became a theological adviser for the post-primary programme of religious teaching and lectured on moral theology and ethics at UCD.
He also lectured on ethics to medical, social science and nursing students at the same university.
He was still in his mid-30s when he became adviser to the Irish representatives to the Synod of Bishops and became a respected author of several books on subjects such as the sacraments, ethics and atheism.
After being appointed auxiliary bishop of Dublin in 1982, with the title “Bishop of Glendalough”, he continued to impress as a prolific author and developed a keen interest in the relationship between faith and culture.
By the late 1980s, after archbishop Kevin McNamara’s death, he seemed almost certain to fill the vacancy.
But the move was reportedly blocked after conservative elements informed Rome that the auxiliary bishop accepted “unorthodox practices” in his part of the archdiocese. (This was a reference to his allowing altar girls in Bray – still uncommon then – and the conduct of absolution services there.)
It was at around this time that he became aware of a series of child sexual abuse concerns, but failed to act quickly or decisively on the majority of them.
He left Dublin when he was installed as bishop of Limerick in February 1996. In the process, he became the first person from outside the diocese to be appointed bishop in more than two centuries.
He proved a popular and hard-working figure. He sold the bishop’s palace and moved into a modest house just outside the city. He went on to establish procedures for safeguarding children and was on the Bishops’ Liaison Committee for Child Protection.
His willingness to defend the church’s positions in public is said to have endeared him to the Vatican, if at times he was criticised for being too brusque and defensive.
Ultimately, he couldn’t defend his own position.
When the Murphy report was issued last month, the criticism was damning. His handling of one complaint was “inexcusable” while he also “handled a number of complaints and suspicions badly”.
MURPHY REPORT - WHAT IT SAID
The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse found that Bishop Murray’s dealings with one abuse allegation while auxiliary bishop in Dublin was “inexcusable”.
Bishop Murray served in the role of auxiliary bishop in the Dublin archdiocese from 1982 to 1996.
The commission was critical of Bishop Murray’s handling of complaints about Fr Tom Naughton, a serial child sexual abuser who served in several parishes.
The report says that in 1983, two parishioners from Valleymount parish expressed concerns to Bishop Murray about Fr Naughton’s behaviour, claiming he was “too close to the altar boys”.
Bishop Murray organised for the complaints to be investigated by a priest. However, the commission said: “The type of investigation carried out is not chronicled in the files and would appear to have been totally inadequate even by the standards of the time.”
The commission said no attempt was made by Bishop Murray to revisit these stated concerns even after he became aware of Naughton’s abusive behaviour in other parishes such as Donnycarney and Ringsend.
The report said, “Bishop Murray’s failure to investigate the earlier suspicions was inexcusable. Bishop Murray did, however, accept in 2002 that he had not dealt well with the situation.”
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