ANALYSIS: Chapter 19 reveals that by March 1985, seven priests were aware of concerns about Walsh
TWO
SERVING bishops have familiar questions to answer following publication
last Friday of parts of the Murphy report which dealt with former
priest Tony Walsh.
They are Bishop of Dromore John McAreavey and
Auxiliary Bishop Éamonn Walsh.
Bishop McAreavey, who as a canon
lawyer sat on the tribunal which defrocked Tony Walsh in 1993, has
remained silent since chapter 19 and relevant sections of chapter 4 of
the Murphy report were published last Friday.
He has yet to explain why
he made no effort to report Walsh’s known criminal behaviour to the
gardaí then or afterwards.
Others who served on the tribunal with
him from January 1992 were the recently retired Bishop of Killaloe
Willie Walsh and the late Fr Paddy Corcoran.
All were canon lawyers.
Chapter
19 reveals that “by March 1985, at least seven priests of the
Archdiocese were aware of concerns about Fr Jovito’s (Walsh’s)
behaviour. At the request of Archbishop McNamara, (Chancellor) Monsignor
(Alex) Stenson spoke to these priests”.
Did one of those “seven priests” include Bishop Éamonn Walsh?
He
was dean at Clonliffe College (from 1977) when Tony Walsh was ordained
from there in 1978.
In the following decade Tony Walsh would admit
abusing children while a seminarian there.
In 1985 Éamonn Walsh
became secretary to the then archbishop of Dublin, Kevin McNamara.
In
March 1987 the archdiocese took out insurance against any possible
future claims from victims of clerical child sex abuse.
As the Murphy
report puts it: “At this time, the archdiocese had knowledge of
approximately 20 priests against whom allegations of child sexual abuse
had been made, or about whom there were suspicions or concerns.”
In
1988 Msgr Desmond Connell became archbishop of Dublin.
In April 1990
Éamonn Walsh became an auxiliary bishop of Dublin.
In August 1990, to
his great credit, he suggested at a meeting of the Dublin bishops that
they should inform “the civil authorities” about Tony Walsh’s criminal
activities, then known to the archdiocese for 12 years.
This was shot down.
In
chapter 19 of the Murphy report, describing that meeting, former
chancellor of the archdiocese Msgr Gerard Sheehy (deceased) wrote:
“Bishop (Éamonn) Walsh made the outrageous suggestion that the
Archbishop should inform the civil authorities about Fr (Jovito’s)
homosexual orientation.”
Chapter 19 continues that “Bishop
(Éamonn) Walsh told the Commission that his concern related to Fr
Jovito’s paedophile orientation and not his sexuality in general.”
Recalling
that August 1990 meeting last December, following publication of the
Murphy report, Bishop Éamonn Walsh told this reporter: “ . . . as far
back as 1990, I wasn’t a month in the job as a bishop, and I stood up at
a meeting and I said that not alone should the police, who were already
informed about an individual . . . but we should say where he was
living and the number of his car, because I felt he was a danger”.
Still, it would be five more years before authorities in the archdiocese told gardaí about Tony Walsh’s activities (1995).
Also
in attendance at that August 1990 bishops’ meeting were Archbishop
Connell (retired), Bishop James Kavanagh (deceased), Bishop Dermot
O’Mahony (retired), and Bishop Donal Murray (resigned).
Bishop
Éamonn Walsh was appointed apostolic administrator of Ferns diocese in
April 2002 on the resignation of Bishop Brendan Comiskey.
He promised
full co-operation with the statutory Ferns inquiry, which investigated
the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations there by church and
State authorities.
In the subsequent Ferns report he was praised for
his co-operation.
However, it emerged later that, as it was
completing its work, that Ferns inquiry came close to collapse in
September 2005 when it was discovered that documents concerning
allegations of abuse against 10 priests in Ferns diocesan personnel
files had not been passed to it.
In July 2005, a woman approached
One in Four with allegations concerning two Ferns priests the inquiry
was investigating.
The inquiry team was not aware of these allegations.
They contacted the diocesan authorities, who supplied relevant files.
It
was then agreed that a trawl of all personnel files at the diocese was
necessary.
This uncovered documents concerning allegations against eight
additional priests of which the inquiry was unaware.
At this
point the Ferns inquiry team, chaired by former Supreme Court Justice
Frank Murphy, considered bringing the investigation to an end, though a
draft report had been completed.
It would have meant beginning all over again.
A
special plenary hearing of the inquiry took place on September 2nd,
2005, to consider the situation.
Bishop Walsh vigorously protested that
an error in good faith had been made.
The inquiry team decided
that omission of the new documents “was due to a regrettable error . .
.”.
It found that newly discovered documents relating to three priests
did not come within its terms of reference and it did not fully
investigate documents relating to the remaining five.
Bishop Éamonn Walsh is both a canon lawyer and a barrister at law.
He has some clarifying to do.
SIC: IT/IE