Sunday, December 19, 2010

Murphy only details crimes in one diocese

DESCRIBED by Dublin’s leading cleric as a "horrendous narrative" the Murphy report is, to date, the most detailed examination of the crimes against children perpetrated by some Catholic priests, and their cover-up, in any part of the country.

The report was published in November 29, 2009, and looks only at the activities — and the Church authorities’ reaction to them — of a sample batch of 46 priests about whom accusations of abuse had been made in the capital between 1975 and 2004.

Evidence emerged in the majority of these cases that indicated they were indeed paedophiles. In fact, one of the priests admitted to committing hundreds of sexual crimes against children.

Judge Yvonne Murphy’s investigation had been prompted by the 2002 RTÉ documentary Cardinal Secrets and found that the Church authorities in Dublin had, at least until the mid 1990s placed "the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets" above the welfare of children.

The 720-page report catalogued horrendous abuse, occurring throughout the Dublin Archdiocese — even within the confines of the Pro-Cathedral — and found repeated evidence of cover- ups of the these activities by the Catholic authorities.

Outrage and apology met the report’s publication.

Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said that the offenders would be "pursued" while Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin offered "each and every survivor, my apology, my sorrow and my shame for what happened to them".

For a period in the wake of the Murphy report, and similar scandals emerging in Germany and elsewhere, it seemed that the Catholic Church was about to change its approach to child sex abuse. By late December 2009, four bishops who had been named in the Murphy report had offered their resignations.

Archbishop Martin publicly supported endeavours to rid the Catholic Church of its predisposition to cover up abuse.

However, by early this year a conservative backlash was in the ascendency.

Bishop Dermot O’Mahony led a counterattack condemning the Archbishop of Dublin for failing "to support priests".

A hurriedly convened meeting in Rome in mid-February between the 23 Irish Bishops and Pope Benedict XVI — himself facing growing inquires about his role in the paedophile priest scandal in Germany — solidified the conservatives’ position.

Revelations in March 2010 that Ireland’s most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal Seán Brady, had assisted the cover-up of the crimes of paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth during the 1970s, and his failure to resign marked victory for the conservatives.

In August, the Pope even decided not to accept the resignations of two of the bishops named in the Murphy Report.

However, the revelations had provoked a profound public reaction. A summer opinion poll revealed that only 11% of those surveyed felt the Catholic Church had adequately dealt with the matter.

Due to the pending court cases involving Tony Walsh the report’s chapter 19 had been withheld on its initial publication.

In his statement yesterday, Archbishop Martin accepted that more horrors are yet to be revealed. "Chapter 19 adds to the Murphy report but does not bring it to a complete conclusion. One more chapter remains incomplete," Dr Martin said.

SIC: IXE/IE