A County Kildare priest has promised to go on a pilgrimage to Lough Derg to show solidarity with the victims of sex abuse. Fr Michael Murtagh, who is PP in Athy, told parishioners at Mass that he intends doing the pilgrimage next year because the reports of abuse outlines by Judge Murphy’s report sent shivers down his spine.
“As a man firstly and as a priest and because I am part of this institution I feel I have to make some form of atonement," he explained. In an implied criticism of his bishop, Dr James Moriarty, he said words did not do enough, remarking, "I think that the bishop's apology has to go further.”
Fr Murtagh said that he was grateful that in spite of the revelations in the Report, so many people went to Mass in the immediate wake of its release.
And he disclosed that about half a dozen parishioners had called personally to him to express their support and show “they were not willing to tar all priests with the same brush.”
But, he went on, any damage done by any institution, bishop or priest could not completely erase the face of Christ or undo his mission.
"Although we feel for the victims of abuse the one shaft of light is that His grace is amazing even in the midst of this horrible abuse - hope is deeper than despair," Fr Murtagh remarked.
Dr Moriarty, who is now bishop of Kildare and Leighlin but was previously an auxiliary bishop in Dublin, was mentioned in the report as having received a complaint of abuse about one of the most notorious abusers in the report, referred to as ‘Fr Edmondus’.
The Murphy enquiry found that the bishop now admits that he could have asked for a search of diocesan archives to find any complaints about the priest in question, but that no such search took place.
"He then warned Fr Edmondus about his behaviour and advised him to desist from the activities mentioned,” the report noted.
"After this, the parish priest noted a change in his [Fr Edmondus's] behaviour but others felt he still surrounded himself with children."
But the reported noted, "No attempt was made by the archdiocesan authorities to check the archives or other files relating to Fr Edmondus when these complaints were received.”
The report suggests that if the archives had been checked, a number of complaints would have been found, including one by Marie Collins, who later went on to become a prominent campaigner.
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