Chapter 20 of the Murphy report, “encapsulates
everything that was wrong with the [Dublin] archdiocesan handling of
child sexual abuse cases,” it said. Three former archbishops of Dublin are criticised trenchantly for their handling of the Patrick McCabe case.
Those are: Dermot Ryan, archbishop between 1972 and 1984, Kevin McNamara, archbishop from 1984 to 1987, and Cardinal Desmond Connell, archbishop from 1988 to 2004.
The Murphy report found that: “Archbishop Ryan
not only about knew about the complaints against Fr McCabe, he had a
considerable understanding of the effects of abuse on children.
This is
one of the few cases in which he took a close personal interest.” It
noted that a priest brother of Patrick McCabe’s, Fr Felim McCabe, was a
friend of Dr Ryan.
Murphy found that Dr Ryan “protected Fr
McCabe to an extraordinary extent; he ensured, as far as he could, that
very few people knew about his activities; it seems that the welfare of
children simply did not play any part in his decisions”.
McCabe was sent to treatment centres in England (1981) and New Mexico (1982), as arranged by then auxiliary bishop of Dublin Brendan Comiskey.
In 1981 the archdiocese said “he had gone away for treatment for throat
cancer” and asked for prayers for him. In 1982 it said he “has
transferred to study further in the USA”.
The
Murphy commission concluded, from a three-page confidential memo it had
seen, that Dr Ryan “was fully aware, at that time, of the criminal
nature of Fr McCabe’s misconduct and, further, he was aware that such
misconduct was damaging to children”.
During the tenure of Dr McNamara the Murphy Commission found that Fr McCabe returned to Ireland in May 1986 from a Californian parish following “stories of inappropriate conduct”.
‘Unmonitored’
Murphy said that: “To the knowledge of the archdiocese, Fr McCabe stayed on in Dublin for the summer of 1986”.
“His
activities appear to have been entirely unmonitored, despite the
archdiocese’s knowledge that he had been declared a paedophile and
despite its knowledge of many complaints against him. He moved from
house to house and he had the use of a car.” That summer he abused a
nine-year-old altar boy.
McCabe returned to the US
but was back in Dublin by 1987 unknown to Dublin church authorities. He
got a job in a school. When the archdiocese heard of this, the school
was informed and he was removed.
In January 1988 a
meeting of Dublin’s auxiliary bishops, attended by archbishop-elect
Desmond Connell, was told that McCabe had assaulted a 14-year-old boy.
Rome was asked that Fr McCabe “be reduced to the lay state as quickly as
possible ‘otherwise immense scandal and damage will ensue both for the
Church and the priesthood in this Diocese’.”
McCabe
was sent to St Patrick’s psychiatric hospital in Dublin. While there,
he told diocesan authorities he had secured a job with homeless adults
at Stockton, California. McCabe left hospital in February 1988.
In
one of its most damning conclusions, the Murphy report said: “The
bishops decided to let him go to the USA. They, in effect, set him loose
on the unsuspecting population of Stockton, California. There is no
record that they notified the bishop of Stockton of his arrival.”
In May 1988 the diocese of Sacramento
became aware of McCabe’s presence in California and, as the Murphy
report put it, “assumed, wrongly of course, that the Dublin Archdiocese
might not have been aware of his presence in Stockton.”
Sacramento
notified Stockton about McCabe.
Just two Dublin
clergy emerge with credit from this case: Canon Ardle McMahon and the
late auxiliary bishop, Joseph Carroll, says the report.