HIS failure to investigate one particular cleric was described by Judge Yvonne Murphy as "inexcusable".But it is not just the case of convicted paedophile priest Thomas Naughton in which Bishop Donal Murray was embroiled during his 14-year tenure as an auxiliary in Dublin.
In 1989 a priest identified in the Murphy report as Fr Horatio approached Bishop Murray and told him he was attracted to a young girl. Horatio denied there was anything physical in the relationship.
Nine years earlier, Horatio had been the subject of a complaint after the parents of a 15-year-old boy told the archdiocese that their son had been abused after meeting the priest in a gay nightclub.
Affair
It was decided to move Horatio (who later admitted to abusing two 15-year-old boys and having an affair with a married man) to another parish.
Horatio said that when he went to see Bishop Murray in 1989, he told him the "whole story" and requested to be defrocked.
Bishop Murray told the commission that he wasn't told the whole story and was not aware of a sexual relationship between the pair or the girl's age when the relationship began.
Bishop Murray was criticised by the commission over his failure to put in place a monitoring system despite "a major problem" supervising a priest, identified as Fr Marius, who is the subject of an ongoing garda investigation.
Marius had been charged -- and later acquitted by the District Court -- of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old girl in a cinema in the 1950s.
In 1992, the archdiocese received a complaint that Marius had abused a young woman in the north Dublin parish in which he was based in the 1970s. The woman, aged 12 when the alleged abuse began, claimed she had been raped and assaulted.
A search of the diocesan secret files revealed the 1950s acquittal and other concerns about Marius's conduct, including complaints that many women felt uncomfortable in his company.
Shortly after the 1992 complaint, Marius agreed to resign and in 1993 a house was bought for him to share with his brother.
Bishop Murray was aware of Marius's background and aware of an extensive behaviour contract with a litany of restrictions placed on the priest.
The contract was signed in June 1993, but Bishop Murray, as area bishop, did not inform the local parish priest about his situation until late 1994.
The parish priest had serious reservations about Marius's ministry in nursing homes. Bishop Murray would later receive reports that Marius was difficult to work with and invited young nurses to his home, where he tried to kiss them.
Bishop Murray, who denied he had responsibility for monitoring Marius, met with him several times between 1993 and 1995 to ask him if he was abiding by his contract and staying away from children.
When Marius failed to return to the Granada Institute in 1995, he was ordered -- seven months later -- to cease work in the diocese. The commission found Bishop Murray never put in place a system to monitor Marius.
Bishop Murray was also implicated in the case of Fr James McNamee, against whom 21 people made complaints of abuse. Although the priest, who died seven years ago, was initially investigated by Auxiliary Bishop Patrick Dunne, the commission criticised Bishop Murray and Cardinal Desmond Connell for not communicating to a group of nuns in Wicklow in which he ministered about extensive abuse allegations against McNamee.
The greatest indictment against Bishop Murray, however, is his handling of Fr Naughton, who has twice been convicted of child sexual abuse.
In 1983, two parishioners from Valleymount in Wicklow expressed concerns about Fr Naughton whom, they said, was "too close to the altar boys".
Uneasy
They wanted Fr Naughton moved from the parish. Bishop Murray told the commission that he was uneasy and afraid that the complaint could involve inappropriate or even abusive behaviour with children. He interviewed Fr Naughton and even informed Archbishop Dermot Ryan.
In 2003, another parishioner told gardai that when she attempted to engage Bishop Murray after a confirmation service in 1984 he "dismissed me and pretended he didn't hear me, and walked away".
Bishop Murray stated that he had discussed Fr Naughton's "difficult attitude" with the woman, not reports of sexual assault. Within weeks Fr Naughton had been moved to Donnycarney, where he continued to abuse.
Later confronted by Monsignor Alex Stenson, Fr Naughton said Bishop Murray had told him that an earlier allegation was "nothing to worry about", adding that "cranks" (Fr Naughton's own words) often make allegations.
The Murphy report excoriates Bishop Murray's failure to follow up properly and reinvestigate the Valleymount complaints when he later became aware of Fr Naughton's abusive behaviour in Donnycarney and Ringsend.
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