SEVERAL bishops singled out for criticism in the Murphy report have responded to a letter sent to them by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin asking them to clarify their positions. Dr Martin said he had received a number of responses from the bishops he had written to last week.
Speaking to the Irish Independent after celebrating a Lourdes reunion Mass in Dublin, Dr Martin said that he had received a reply from the under-fire Bishop of Limerick, Donal Murray.
But he would not be drawn on whether he was satisfied with the responses given to him so far.
He indicated that the bishops' responses would be central to the discussions he and Cardinal Sean Brady would be having with the Pope this weekend.
Last week, Dr Martin said that he was not satisfied with the response of Bishop Murray and other auxiliary bishops who served in Dublin and who were criticised in the report. At the time, he said that those who were no longer serving in Dublin could not tailor their responses to people in their current diocese.
"He [Bishop Murray] did reply, I wrote a letter to him and he said he'd be replying," Dr Martin said yesterday. "They are beginning to come in."
Questioned
He said that he would have to read the responses together in order to decide if he was happy with them and added that some of the bishops he wrote to had questioned his request for clarity.
"I think we'll wait until we see what comes in," Dr Martin said.
"We have a meeting of the bishops on Wednesday and Cardinal Brady and I are going to Rome at the weekend so I would hope that by the time we are ready to go Rome, we would have something to say there."
His comments follow those of Cardinal Brady, who called on the bishops named in the report to act soon in light of the findings that cover-ups of clerical abuse had taken place.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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: II