Bishop Eamon Casey was unable to attend the funeral Mass in Dublin this week of the first director of Trocaire because of illness.Dr Casey worked closely with Brian McKeown for two decades.
The Irish Independent learned last night from senior church sources that the 82-year-old former Bishop of Kerry and Galway is receiving medical treatment for a leg infection in a Galway hospital.
Mr McKeown (70) from Belfast, began working with Bishop Casey when he was appointed director of the newly launched Trocaire in Lent 1973 after having worked as volunteer in the Congo with the Legion of Mary and later with an alliance of Catholic development agencies in Brussels.
A member of the McKeown family confirmed that Bishop Casey had written to explain the reasons for his unavoidable absence and conveyed his highest regards for Mr McKeown who was described by Bishop John Kirby in his homily at Tuesday's funeral as a radical life-long campaigner for justice and human rights in the Third World.
Bishop Casey was chairman of Trocaire, the Irish Catholic Church's overseas development agency, from its foundation in 1973 until his sensational resignation in 1992 after it was revealed that he had fathered a son with an American divorcee Annie Murphy.
After spending 16 years abroad in the foreign missions and latterly working as a curate in England, Bishop Casey returned to Ireland in 2006, and took up residence in a home in Shanaglish, Co Galway, provided by the current Bishop of Galway, Martin Drennan.
But he was not permitted to say Mass in public on account of a police investigation lodged by a woman living in England who made allegations of improper sexual conduct towards her when she was a girl.
Allegations
Bishop Casey was interviewed about the allegations by gardai who had travelled to England before his return to Galway, but the Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to prosecute following their examination of the investigation file.
Although a committee of the Irish Bishops Conference also cleared Bishop Casey of any suspicions of improper behaviour, the Vatican decided in autumn 2006 to conduct its own inquiry and ordered Bishop Casey to say Mass only in private.
The Irish Independent learned last night that almost three years later Bishop Casey has not yet been cleared by Rome of the allegations, and that is still prohibited from saying Mass in public.
This restriction means that even if Bishop Casey had been well enough to attend Mr McKeown's funeral, he would not have been allowed to take part in the concelebration Mass with four other bishops, or be seated at the altar.
Bishop John Kirby, who succeeded Bishop Casey as chairman of Trocaire, was the chief concelebrant at the Mass in St Agnes Church, Shankill, along with auxiliary Bishops of Dublin Eamon Walsh and Fiachra O Ceallaigh, and the Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, Colm O'Reilly.
A senior church source said that this delay in clearing him by the Vatican which would allow him to say Mass publicly in parishes was "a source of great anguish and torment for Bishop Casey, who recently underwent a hip operation after a fall in a newsagent's shop.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
SIC: II