Cardinal Sean Brady's belated but forceful intervention reaffirming his support for the national child protection guidelines spells doom for the beleagured Bishop of Cloyne, John Magee.In the unequivocal statement issued last night by the Cardinal Primate of All Ireland is the quiet but insistent voice of Pope Benedict XVI, who has demanded that the Irish Church clean up all vestiges of an endemic, decades-long culture of cover-ups of priest rapes of children.
It is a voice, too, which backs last month's warning by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin that the protection system, involving immediate referral of complaints to gardai and the HSE, was in danger of collapse.
Archbishop Martin's warning came days after a damning report by the Irish Church's own, but independent, National Board for Safeguarding Children found Bishop Magee, a former secretary to three Popes, had failed to apply proper procedures and had thus put vulnerable children in danger.
Archbishop Martin admitted he was "extremely concerned" that Bishop Magee's flawed approach had endangered a "one-Church policy" agreed by all 26 dioceses, including, on paper, Magee's Cloyne.
Archbishop Martin revealed that he had already warned the Irish Bishops' Conference and the Church's National Board for Safeguarding Children that if doubts persisted concerning the consistency of approach, he would find it necessary to implement his own system of accountable child protection.
Implicitly, Archbishop Martin's broadside cast doubt on whether the most senior Irish Churchman -- Cardinal Brady -- was with him or Bishop Magee.
Now, not only has Cardinal Brady cleared up this doubt, he has sided completely with Archbishop Martin, in spite of the ecclesiastical tradition of each bishop being an independent baron in his Episcopal fiefdom.
Cardinal Brady has consulted the National Board's chief executive officer, Ian Elliott, and has confirmed that the board will seek a written commitment from every bishop, every religious congregation and missionary society to implement the agreed policy. He has also given his solemn word that he will immediately sign any such commitment on behalf of the Archdiocese of Armagh.
Signature
In such circumstances, the Government, which next Wednesday is to discuss the Cloyne Report -- and which will be urged by Children's Minister Barry Andrews to instruct the Dublin Commission of Inquiry to initiate a State probe into the Cloyne Diocese -- will not be impressed by the proffered signature of John Magee.
Furthermore, the Cardinal has cut off any wriggle room by his suggestion to the board that it might consider conducting its own review of current child safeguarding practice in every diocese on the island.
Presumably, Bishop Magee has been unreceptive to pleas from his fellow bishops to resign. He reaffirmed his intention of staying on in his Christmas Eve message from his pulpit in Cloyne Cathedral.
It is now evident that Cardinal Brady and Archbishop Martin have lost confidence in Bishop Magee's capacity to implement proper procedures, which he failed to do in the cases against two priests.
If Bishop Magee does not resign before Wednesday's crucial Cabinet meeting, events are likely to be taken out of his hands -- he faces the humiliation of removal by Rome.
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(Source: II)