BISHOP EAMONN Walsh has said he will step down as an auxiliary bishop of Dublin if he becomes a “block on the gospel”.Following a Council of Priests’ meeting in Dublin yesterday, Bishop Walsh also stressed he had done nothing wrong in his handling of clerical child sex abuse cases and his resignation would be an “injustice”.
The council is an advisory body to the archbishop of Dublin and it met yesterday afternoon for the first time since the Murphy report was published.
Asked whether the resignation of Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray had caused him to reflect on his own position, Dr Walsh said he had done no wrong, and if he had, he would be long gone.
“People may attribute a wrong to me unjustly and people have been unjustly treated in the past. And if that happens again then I will have to be the person to accept that injustice but it’s not a thing I want to do.”
He said: “From my own point of view if I find that my position is such that I’m going to be a block to the gospel then I cannot be a block. So I will have to make sure that I maintain my integrity.”
Bishop Walsh is one of five bishops named in the Murphy report.
Dr Walsh said he was concerned the constant media attention on the issue of clerical child sex abuse was causing additional pain to victims.
“Only last Monday I spent a lot of time with one of the victims and every time this comes up it really turns up their pain and this is a person, like many others, who do not know how to cope with all the publicity,” he said.
He said his concern was always focused on what he could do to alleviate the pain of the victims and he had a passion for child protection. He said he would love to bring his decade-long experience of this work back 20 years but this was impossible.
Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin Raymond Field, also named in the Murphy report, attended yesterday’s meeting but did not speak to the media.
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin released a statement following the meeting acknowledging the archdiocese was in “a period of deep crisis”.
He said priests and the people of the diocese saw that there could be no healing without radical change.
“I am and will be meeting those in the diocese who are named in the report about the way this archdiocese is managed and about changes I want and that I consider vital for the future of the archdiocese,” said Dr Martin, who noted that this period of consultation would not be complete until early in the new year.
“Responsibility must be taken by all who hold a position of authority and collective responsibility,” said Dr Martin.
“The Murphy report indicates how decisions were taken which resulted in further children being abused. Accountability must be assumed for that and radical reform is required in the archdiocese, not just in the area of child protection,” he said.
Dr Martin said he believed Bishop Donal Murray had done the right thing for his diocese and for the wider Irish church. “I appreciate the personal difficulty he has been under,” he added.
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