THE Bishop of Galway, Rev Martin Drennan remains adamant that he doesn’t need to resign following the publication of the Murphy Report into clerical abuses in the Dublin Diocese, where he was an Auxillary Bishop from 1997 to 2005. In fact, Bishop Drennan’s continued resistance to all calls on him to resign has in turn put pressure on Cardinal Desmond Connell to take full responsibility for mishandling allegations of sexual abuse against priests in the Dublin Diocese.
In the past few days, Bishop Drennan has reiterated that his role of Auxillary Bishop before he came to Galway meant he had not been fully informed of cases involving allegations against priests and that it was the then Archbishop Des Connell who made all major decisions.
Bishop Drennan is one of five Auxillary Bishops mentioned in the Murphy Report. The reference to him states that he correctly handled one particular case of allegations against one priest.
The other four Auxillary Bishops have all tendered their resignations to the Vatican, though none of them have been formally accepted to date.
Bishop Drennan has been adamant from the publication of the Murphy Report a month ago that he did nothing wrong and that the Archbishop was to blame for any mishandling of the situation and in particular to “a major breakdown in communication” in relation to number sex abuse allegations against Fr Noel Reynolds.
A spokesman for the Galway Diocese said that Bishop Drennan had the full support of his priests and that the Bishop was “holding up well in the circumstances.”
To date Cardinal Connell has only made one short statement in which he said he bitterly regretted failures on his own part that contributed to the suffering of victims of sex abuse.
“I have spoken of my utter abhorrence of these grave offences and apologised for them on many occasions during my time as Archbishop,” he said.
It now appears that there is mounting pressure on Cardinal Connell to make a further statement which would exonerate Bishop Drennan and ensure his continued position as the Bishop of Galway.
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