ANALYSIS: ONE OF the striking features of the
conduct of Irish bishops throughout this lengthy clerical child sex
abuse crisis has been their collegiality.
They have stood by one
another.
The few exceptions to their brotherly embrace, such as
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and retired Bishop Willie Walsh, have had a
more Arctic experience
An illustration of the bishops’ loyalty to each other can be gleaned from what happened in early 2009.
On
December 19th, 2008, the church’s watchdog, the National Board for
Safeguarding Children, published a report detailing that child
protection practices in Cloyne were “inadequate and in some respects
dangerous”.
December 30th, 2008
“Joseph” rang Fr Bill Bermingham, then designated person for safeguarding children in Cloyne, and asked to meet.
January 2nd, 2009
They
met, with Joseph’s father present. Joseph explained that he had once
considered the priesthood and discussed this with Bishop Magee. He was
17 at the time and too young to enter a seminary.
He eventually
decided against the priesthood and met Bishop Magee to discuss this.
They met at the bishop’s house in Cobh. It was the first time they were
alone together.
The bishop embraced him “tightly”, according to the
Cloyne report, and kissed him on the forehead, and would tell him during
later encounters that he loved him and had dreamt about him.
There were
other such meetings and similar encounters, which Joseph then felt were
paternal.
However, after publication of the watchdog’s report,
Joseph began to think the bishop’s behaviour was not so innocent.
It was
why he contacted Fr Bermingham. Later, Ian Elliott of the National
Board for Safeguarding Children and Fr Bermingham would conclude these
encounters were not child abuse and not reportable to the civil
authorities.
What took place was “boundary infringement” and
‘inappropriate behaviour’ by Bishop Magee, the report said.
January 3rd, 2009
Fr
Bermingham informed Bishop Magee of Joseph’s allegations. He also
informed Archbishop of Cashel Dermot Clifford. Bishop Magee was shocked
at Joseph’s interpretation of their meetings
January 7th, 2009
Archbishop
Clifford informed Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady by phone about
the allegations against Bishop Magee. Then minister for children Barry
Andrews announced the government had extended the remit of the the
Murphy commission to include the Cloyne diocese.
January 9th, 2009
The Irish Times published
results of a survey it conducted of the four Catholic archbishops to
establish who among them supported Bishop Magee remaining in office.
Cardinal
Brady and Archbishop Dermot Clifford, both then aware of the
allegations against Bishop Magee, believed he should stay on.
So too did
the archbishop of Tuam, Michael Neary, while Archbishop Martin
responded with a cryptic “Bishop Magee should make a decision in the
best interests of child protection in his diocese”.
This was understood
to mean he should go.
At that point three of the four Catholic
archbishops in Ireland supported Bishop Magee remaining in office
despite the damning report by the National Board for Safeguarding
Children and despite two of them also being aware of allegations against
him.
January 11th, 2009
Archbishop
Clifford visited the papal nuncio Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza in Dublin
and told him about the allegations against Bishop Magee. The nuncio said
he would forward details to Rome.
January 13th, 2009
Cardinal
Brady explicitly rejected calls for Bishop Magee to resign in an RTÉ
interview, in Killarney. He was aware of the calls for the bishop’s
resignation “and I understand why people would make those calls because
some people are very angry. . . however, on reflection I think he should
not resign”, he said.
He had “known Bishop Magee for almost 50
years. I think he is dependable and reliable. I think he has learned a
very painful lesson and I think that he will do everything in his power
to make sure that this terrible thing does not happen again in his
diocese”.
This unexpected intervention by the cardinal caused some
surprise and was said to have been prompted by reports that Bishop
Magee was under strain.
Cardinal Brady knew why.
Since Wednesday, we do,
too.
Archbishop Clifford and Ian Elliott decided to report
Joseph’s complaint to gardaí as “the better course of action”, the
report said.
Joseph went to a solicitor and the Garda.
Gardaí
concluded that, while Bishop Magee’s behaviour was inappropriate and an
infringement, it was not sexually abusive, the report said.
January 23rd, 2009
The
bishops held an emergency meeting in Maynooth.
There were more than 20
present, and they discussed whether Bishop Magee should resign in light
of the report and the extension of the remit of the Murphy commission to
include Cloyne.
Allegations against Bishop Magee were not discussed,
according to minutes of the meeting.
At that meeting, according to
the Cloyne report, Archbishop Martin and “three or four” other bishops
felt Bishop Magee should resign.
Archbishop Clifford spoke against this
but later changed his mind, it said.
Cardinal Brady later told the
commission that at that meeting he was not in favour of the status quo
in Cloyne.
After that emergency meeting Cardinal Brady, Bishop Colm
O’Reilly, Bishop John McAreavey, and the papal nuncio met Bishop Magee
and asked him to stand aside.
In The Irish Times survey of January
9th, Bishop McAreavey responded that if Bishop Magee could establish
trust then he could “usefully help the diocese”.
Bishop O’Reilly
responded that Bishop Magee should stay on.
January 31st, 2009
Papal nuncio Leanza met Bishop Magee privately and “appeared” to suggest he stand down.
February 4th, 2009
Bishop
Magee requested the appointment of an apostolic administrator in his
place to Cloyne.
He suggested four names.
None was selected.
February 28th, 2009
The
Vatican appointed Archbishop Clifford as apostolic administrator to
Cloyne diocese.
It was announced publicly on March 7th.
It didn’t end
there.
The report said that at some point in March, Fr Bermingham and a
senior social worker suggested to Joseph of his embrace by Bishop Magee
that “the pope often greeted people in this fashion”.
It said that on
March 21st, 2009, Archbishop Clifford and Fr Bermingham also met Joseph.
They suggested to him that Bishop Magee’s embrace was “an Italianate
gesture”.
Joseph responded that Bishop Magee had been “22 years in
Cobh”.