Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Bishop Walsh admits getting hate mail

The outgoing Bishop of Killaloe Dr Willie Walsh (75) has this week revealed that he received large amounts of hate mail following comments he made in a radio interview last December where he refused to support calls for the resignation of the Bishop of Limerick Dr Donal Murray following the publication of the Murphy Report.

Speaking this week to the Clare Champion Newspaper Bishop Walsh claimed that he made a “serious error under pressure” when he failed to state in a Morning Ireland radio interview that he had not read sections of the report referring to Bishop Murray's handling of some abuse cases following the publication of the Report.

Bishop Walsh who will retire as Bishop of Killaloe in the autumn when he will he replaced by Dr Kieran O'Reilly, said that some people claimed that he was not concerned about child protection.

He said that most of the hate mail came from people outside of the diocese.

He added, “There was a lot of understandable anger there at the time. If you speak in public about sensitive issues, you don't always get it right and you can upset people. You have to accept criticism, which can be difficult and you can find yourself in a lonely place. If you cannot deal with the criticism then you don't make a statement.”

SIC: CIN