THE CONFERENCE of Bishops is due to gather in Maynooth on Wednesday and Thursday in their first meeting since the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation report was published. It’s understand that they will issue a statement on Thursday.
The country’s 26 bishops and seven auxiliary bishops will be in attendance.
There is no sign of pressure easing on Bishop Donal Murray to stand down as Bishop of Limerick, with many within the Church urging him to make a final statement this weekend in advance of the conference. Many ordinary Catholics see his position as untenable.
Earlier this week, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin admitted that he wasn’t happy with responses from the bishops named in the Yvonne Murphy report as having failed to protect children.
"I’ve listened to or heard some of the responses. Some of them have made no response, and some of the responses I’ve heard I’m not satisfied with," the archbishop, who has written to those involved asking them to give a clear public explanation for how the abuse was allowed to occur, told RTÉ.
The lay Catholic organisation, Voice of the Faithful, is due to hold a "small dignified" protest outside the Papal Nuncio’s Dublin residence today.
Members of the organisation will gather at his Navan Road home at around noon. It’s understood an unnamed Irish survivor of clerical sex abuse will be in attendance.
It’s also believed that an American survivors of sex abuse organisation is sending some of its members to Ireland to protest in the coming days at the Irish bishops’ response to the report.
"We will be presenting to the Nunciature a copy of our open letter to Pope Benedict XVI calling for an inquiry into the appalling failure of so many Catholic bishops in Ireland and abroad to protect children from clerical child sex abuse," said Voice of the Faithful’s acting co-ordinator, Sean O’Conaill.
"We will also be issuing and presenting a short statement protesting at the failure of the Nunciature and the Apostolic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to respond in a timely and appropriate manner to the Irish Commission of Inquiry," he said.
The letter, which calls for a Church-wide inquiry into clerical abuse and the removal of offending bishops, was sent to the Pope last weekend.
Voice of the Faithful says in the letter that the "principle of accountability cannot be achieved while so many bishops and archbishops, who have knowingly over a considerable period of time permitted this tragedy to persist, continue in office".
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