A SENIOR bishop yesterday came to the support of embattled Cardinal Sean Brady and insisted he should remain as head of the Catholic Church in Ireland.The Bishop of Kerry, Dr Bill Murphy, also claimed there were no secrecy oaths for abuse victims in his diocese.
Dr Murphy stressed he did not believe the cardinal should resign. He said Dr Brady had worked long and hard to tackle the challenges facing the church, including the need to improve child protection.
"He (Dr Brady) has made an enormous contribution to the safeguarding of children in the country," he said.
The Bishop of Cork and Ross, Dr John Buckley, also warned the actions of a small minority of clerics who abused children should not be allowed to undermine or invalidate the work of the majority of priests.
"A single (abuse) case among the priests is one too many -- but I would hope that the actions of a minority of priests would not invalidate the good work of so many other priests," he said.
Dr Buckley acknowledged a lot of good priests had been "demoralised" by the abuse controversy.
Meanwhile, Dr Murphy -- who was celebrating Confirmations in Killorglin -- also said that, to the best of his knowledge, there were no secrecy oaths ever required of abuse victims in the Diocese of Kerry.
Dr Murphy, who has been the Bishop of Kerry since 1995, said any allegation of child abuse had been referred to the proper authorities.
The bishop also said the Diocese of Kerry now had 116 lay officials trained in child-protection policies.
But like Dr Buckley in Cork, Dr Murphy said he would have no difficulty with a probe into the handling of abuse allegations in his diocese.
"I think it would be better to get the whole truth out rather than having a drip, drip, drip situation," he explained.
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