GROUPS REPRESENTING victims of clerical child-sexual abuse have called on church leaders to take responsibility and resign for their failure to protect children following Pope Benedict’s decision to accept the resignation of Bishop Jim Moriarty of Kildare and Leighlin.But they have also praised the “honesty and courage” of Dr Moriarty, who is the second Irish bishop to have his resignation accepted by Pope Benedict following the publication of the Murphy report.
Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray resigned last December.
The One in Four victim support group yesterday singled out Dr Moriarty as the only bishop “who accepted that, as an auxiliary bishop of Dublin, he had not done enough to challenge the culture of secrecy and cover-up which had prevailed there”.
The group said “his honesty and courage is to be commended”.
One in Four also called on all those who were in positions of authority in the Dublin archdiocese to accept responsibility for what had happened and to resign.
“It is still important . . . that people in leadership positions are held accountable for their failures,” it said yesterday.
“When both the pope and Cardinal Brady have been implicated in protecting sex offenders, does the resignation of individual bishops contribute to the protection of children? When the most senior churchmen consistently deny responsibility for their failures, can we have any confidence that the culture of secrecy has changed?” asked One in Four executive director Maeve Lewis.
She questioned whether survivors could believe that there was a genuine commitment to prioritise the safety of children given the Vatican’s attempts to portray coverage of the scandal as anti-church media hysteria or clerical-sex abuse as a homosexual issue.
Clerical child sex abuse survivor Andrew Madden also welcomed the acceptance of the bishop’s resignation.
“I have just spoken with Bishop Moriarty to say that I am very grateful to him for the content and tone of his resignation statement . . . Bishop Moriarty acknowledges that he should have challenged the prevailing culture that existed . . . and apologises for failing to do so. This is very welcome,” he said.
“His acknowledgment that ‘the long struggle of survivors to be heard and respected by church authorities has revealed a culture within the church that many would simply describe as unchristian’ is also very welcome.”