MOST certainly Donal Murray should resign as Bishop of Limerick and respect the state judicial finding of the Murphy commission that his mishandling of complaints against the notorious paedophile cleric Thomas Naughton was "inexcusable".Dublin-born Bishop Murray, a leading academic theologian, finds himself in public disgrace and an embarrassment to his Church. No amount of "mental reservation" on his part can alter this judgmental reality.
Frankly, it was pathetic on Sunday for him to tell a congregation of elderly parishioners at a Mass in Limerick that the question of whether he should resign will depend on whether his presence in the diocese is "a help or a hindrance".
Given the woeful lack of authentic structures for consultation and deliberation in the Irish Church as advocated by the Second Vatican Council, Bishop Murray knows that the channels for absolving him will be cardboard box entities such as deaneries, priest councils and pastoral assemblies, all reflective of the voice of their diocesan master rather than the broad sweep of public opinion that is scandalised by his clinging to office.
These so-called representative bodies in the Limerick diocese will be deferential towards him. They will return a pre-ordained vote of confidence in his defective leadership.
Hopefully, Bishop Murray took time off from reading theological manuals such as the works of St Alphonsus Liguori, the prime author of the dubious notion of "mental reservation", and took note of the many callers to Joe Duffy's 'Liveline' pleading for the laity to rescue their Church from discredited bishops who do not accept moral responsibility for their failings of governance.
Of 300 unsolicited emails sent into the show, only a few took the side of the embattled Bishop Murray. Sign that letter of resignation, bishop, before the papal nuncio sends the removal van to your residence.
It was also sad to hear the well-intentioned Bishop of Killaloe, Willie Walsh, tell 'Morning Ireland' that he was "quite uncomfortable with this kind of public trial".
This is an insult to the intelligence of Catholic lay people who have digested the Murphy report's censure of Bishop Murray.
Dr Walsh's search for kangaroos fails to address the horror ordinary Catholics feel at the low standards of public responsibility in episcopal palaces nationwide.
Similarly, Dr Walsh misfired when he asked if the calls for Bishop Murray's departure were "about healing of survivors or was a sort of desire to get a head on a plate".
Is Dr Walsh deaf to the pleas of victims such as Marie Collins, Andrew Madden and Colm O'Gorman for accountability in their Church?
Worst of all was Dr Walsh's egregious remark that calls for Bishop Murray's resignation were based on "gross" misreading of the Murphy report.
The absurdity of his comment was compounded when he admitted that he had not read the report but had been briefed by an adviser.
Some adviser. Do we now have the doctrine of the infallibility of episcopal advisers? This was Dr Walsh's Brian Cowen moment of saying on live national radio that he had not read the whole of the EU's Lisbon Treaty.
Dr Walsh, who retires next year, has been one of the saner voices in the Irish hierarchy, being particularly advanced in questioning obligatory priestly celibacy.
But as a trained canon lawyer, the old instinct of defending the church system of secrecy and unaccountability appear to have smothered his rural common sense.
He sounded as if he was batting for a fellow member of the bishops' club.
Nor has Mr Cowen shown himself to be the brightest boy in the Cabinet. The Taoiseach should follow the logic of his own state commission's findings and call for episcopal resignations, especially as so many of these divine rulers are ducking and diving behind empty apologies and charades of pretending to accept the democratic will of the people.
Fair play, therefore, to Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny in breaking a secular taboo about politicians not censuring the conduct of Catholic bishops.
He has become the first political leader in the history of the Irish state to call for the resignations of bishops who have engaged in clerical child abuse cover-ups. Bravo.
Fine Gael has come a long way, in line with the changed outlook of the people, since 1951 when Taoiseach John A Costello cravenly submitted to the backroom demands of Archbishop John Charles McQuaid by disowning Noel Browne and causing the collapse of his mother-and-child welfare scheme.
Is Mr Cowen still living in his Offaly childhood of the 1950s?
We are at a critical juncture in regard to realigning still too cosy church-state relations and, internally within the Catholic Church, of a lay revolt, supported by some courageous priests, but not too many, against unaccountable bishops who have lost moral credibility.
It was the sociologist Tom Inglis who described the Catholic Church as having lost its "moral monopoly" as arbiter of the nation's social mores.
We have arrived at the stage when the Catholic bishops have lost their "moral authority" and a government stands idly by.
If Bishop Murray does not resign with dignity, he will put another nail in the Church's coffin -- and, in time, that great old survivor of the centuries, the Vatican, will reward him by giving him his P45.
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