BISHOP OF Galway Martin Drennan has urged Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin to drop his name from the list of people who potentially should resign.He said a question had been put over his integrity by the archbishop by calling for all bishops named in the report to resign, and he wished for this to be corrected.
“It certainly would be helpful. The people of Galway are saying my integrity is being brought into question by that statement. I can’t clear myself in this case,” he told RTÉ’s News At One .
“I don’t know whether Archbishop Martin intended that or not but it has put a question mark over my integrity.”
Bishop Drennan said he had responded to a letter from Archbishop Martin asking for a verdict on the way things were handled.
“Now that I have responded to him and given him the evidence he needs he might want to reflect on that and what response he might want to make to it.” Bishop Drennan served as auxiliary bishop of Dublin from 1997 to 2005.
He is named in the Murphy report in connection to reports of inappropriate behaviour relating to Fr Guido involving male teenagers in 2002 and 2003 .
He was satisfied with the way he had handled abuse allegations and said that resigning was not the answer.
“I feel we have been through a spiral of revenge. I understand that people are angry . . . but taking the route of revenge is not going to bring any closure.”
Bishop Drennan said that if he could not be a source of unity for the people and the priests of his diocese he would not want to stay on.
However, did not intend to resign and felt he had “huge” support following a long meeting with local priests and an interview on radio in Galway.
Bishop Drennan said he was happy with the way he had handled cases and had no regrets.
As far as he knew there was no case he should have reported and did not. He was not called to give evidence before the Murphy commission and “as far as I know I handled cases as best I could.”
He found the situation distressing.
“There’s a lot of anger out there even among our very best people and that anger has to be channelled into positive directions,” he said.
He felt Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray did the right thing in resigning as “he was no longer a source of healing in the diocese, no longer a source of unity and in that situation any of us would resign”.
Callers to Galway Bay FM radio yesterday were “93 per cent” in favour of Bishop Drennan remaining in his position, according to the station’s chief executive, Keith Finnegan.
The calls and texts were made after Dr Drennan was interviewed on Mr Finnegan’s morning show yesterday.
“We received 163 calls and texts in total over the interview, and 93 per cent were in favour of him staying on,” Mr Finnegan said.
The bishop told Mr Finnegan in the radio interview that his conscience was “clear”, he did not believe had done anything wrong.
He said: “Taking the route of revenge is not going to bring any healing. Forcing resignations will not bring closure.”
Dr Drennan said that he was encouraged by the support expressed by over 60 priests who attended a meeting with him in Galway two days ago.
“I need to be a source of unity in my diocese and if I felt I was not then I would resign,” he said.
Several callers to the radio station afterwards said that the diocese had “lost one bishop” when Dr Eamon Casey resigned, and did not want to lose another.
Dr Casey, who resigned in 1992 over revelations that he had fathered a son, Peter, and had used diocesan funds to make financial payments to the boy’s mother, Annie Murphy, returned to live in the south Galway parish of Shanaglish in February 2006 after a long period away in South America and England.
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