The embattled Bishop of Galway should resign if he was part of the culture of church cover-ups of paedophile priests, according to the 'Irish Catholic' newspaper.A leading article published today suggests that Bishop Martin Drennan would be obliged to go if the principle of "collective responsibility" was found to apply to his tenure as an auxiliary bishop in the archdiocese of Dublin. This principle was accepted by Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, Jim Moriarty.
He stepped down not because he did wrong but on the grounds of "collective responsibility" for secretive structures that put the institution above the welfare of children.
Logic
In an article titled 'When did the bad days end?', editor Gary O'Sullivan writes that the crisis facing the Church over resignations of bishops now needed a shape and logic to it.
"If some measure is not brought to bear on this, it could be argued that every bishop who was part of the bishops' conference prior to 2002 was part of the collective culture of cover-up and obfuscation and as a result should resign," he said.
"This is why it is so important now to determine when the culture changed, when the 'Moriarty principle' ceases to have effect, that is when collective responsibility ceases."
But Mr O'Sullivan suggests that Bishop Drennan should stay if it could be shown that in his time in the Dublin archdiocese from 1997 to 2005 the concealment culture had changed.
And he pleads for some form of fault line be drawn up to determine when this culture changed.
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