The report on the handling of abuse allegations in the Dublin archdiocese from 1975 to 2004 finds that many of the auxiliary bishops “knew of the fact of abuse”, as did a number of officials such as Monsignor Gerard Sheehy and Monsignor Alex Stenson.
“Bishop Donal Murray and Bishop Brendan Comiskey were aware for many years of complaints and/or suspicions of clerical child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese. Religious orders were also aware,” the report states.
One of the principal tasks of the auxiliary bishops was the assignment of priests to parishes, subject to final approval by the Archbishop.
“In the Dublin Archdiocese priests were reassigned approximately every five years. The evidence shows that these appointments were often made without any reference to child sexual abuse issues,” the report says.
It says the auxiliary bishops who dealt “particularly badly” with complaints were Bishops O’Mahony and Kavanagh.
“Bishop Murray also dealt badly with a number of complaints.”
Bishop Dermot O’Mahony:
Bishop O’Mahony’s handling of complaints and suspicions of child sexual abuse was “particularly bad”.
He was one of the longest serving auxiliary bishops of Dublin (from 1975 to 1996). The Commission has established that he was aware of 13 priests against whom there had been allegations or suspicions by 1995.
"As chancellor (he was a bishop while he was the chancellor), he dealt with one complaint and he did not inform the Archbishop about it.
When he ceased to be chancellor, he failed to tell Archbishop Dermot Ryan about a number of complaints, for example, the complaint relating to a priest given the pseudonymn Fr Vidal, on whose behalf he gave a reference to the diocese of Sacramento in California without giving details of his past history.
In the case of Fr Ivan Payne, he allowed a psychiatric report “which was clearly based on inaccurate information” to be relied on by Archbishop Ryan and subsequently by Archbishop Desmond Connell.
He also failed to tell either the National Rehabilitation Hospital, Archdiocesan authorities or the Gardaí that Fr Reynolds, who was chaplain to the hospital at the time, might have a problem with child sexual abuse.
Bishop James Kavanagh (deceased): Bishop Kavanagh was the longest serving auxiliary bishop (from 1972 to 1998).
The report says he failed to deal properly with Fr William Carney even when he had pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse. He also tried to influence the Garda handling of the criminal complaints against Fr Carney.
He persuaded a family to drop a complaint they had made to the Gardaí in relation to another priest.
Bishop Donal Murray (currently Bishop of Limerick): Bishop Murray served as auxiliary bishop of Dublin from 1982 to 1996.
“He handled a number of complaints and suspicions badly,” the report says.
“For example, he did not deal properly with the suspicions and concerns that were expressed to him in relation to Fr Thomas Naughton.”
When, a short time later, factual evidence of Fr Naughton’s abusing emerged in another parish, Bishop Murray’s failure to reinvestigate the earlier suspicions was inexcusable.
“Bishop Murray did, however, accept in 2002 that he had not dealt well with the situation.”
Bishop Laurence Forristal (retired): The report says he was “the only bishop to unequivocally admit in evidence to the commission that he may not have handled matters satisfactorily”.
He cited the Fr Cicero [a pseudonym] case as an example and also the Fr Hugo [a pseudonym] case.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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: IT