THE Bishop of Limerick, Dr Donal Murray, who has come in for strong criticism in the Murphy report for his actions while auxiliary bishop of Dublin, last night insisted he did not intend to resign. Bishop Murray conceded that in one particular case, "it might have been possible to prevent some of the dreadful suffering of child abuse" if he had succeeded in deriving more information.
"I very much wish that I had been able to do so. It is a matter of the greatest regret to me if any action or omission of mine contributed to the suffering of children who were abused. I sincerely apologise and humbly ask their forgiveness," he said.
Speaking in Limerick, Dr Murray said: "At no time did I, as auxiliary bishop of Dublin, receive an allegation of sexual abuse and fail to act; when an allegation of sexual abuse of children by a priest was brought to my attention, I reported promptly and conscientiously in each case."
But questioned, he said his reports were sent to the Archbishop and the diocese and not to the gardaí.
When one allegation of sexual abuse of children by a priest was brought to his attention in 1983, he did not pass on this information to gardaí but went to the Archbishop and diocesan authorities.
"I don’t intend to resign. As I have tried to explain to you, I acted conscientiously in every case. I never tried to hide anything and I think the fact that the policy of the Church was not to report, was a very wrong policy.
"But I think it was largely due to a wrong concept of confidentiality. In very many cases, people came and said ‘for God’s sake don’t tell the police’.
"We now know you can’t accept information on that basis," he said.
There were occasions when roles and responsibilities were not clear or where he did not have full information about cases. There was a long delay reporting these matters to gardaí, the bishop said.
Asked if he did not see there was an urgency, Dr Murray said: "No, I didn’t I think. I mean obviously I think people who commit crimes like that should be punished and I mean I have no two ways about it. I think our concerns were really about the particular people involved." In hindsight, he said, it should have been reported.
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