IT IS REPORTED that gardaí recommended the prosecution of the former
Bishop of Cloyne, John Magee, last year but the move was dismissed as
“not relevant” by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Writing in the Sunday Times Justine McCarthy reveals that gardaí pushed for
the Bishop implicated in the damning Murphy report published on
Wednesday to be prosecuted under the Criminal Law Act for failing to
disclose information about an arrestable offence but that the DPP said
this was irrelevant and that no charges should be brought.
There
have been calls for Bishop Magee, who resigned in March 2009, to return
to Ireland following the publication of the report.
The Murphy
Commission report said Magee had neglected the guidelines for dealing
with those who reported abuse by members of the priesthood. He is
believed to be abroad.
Meanwhile, it is reported in today’s
Sunday Business Post that the Pope is to cut the number of dioceses in
Ireland as the Catholic Church’s numbers dwindle in the wake of the
various sex scandals that afflicted it in recent years.
Kieron
Wood writes that six of the 26 dioceses in the country have no bishop as
they have either resigned or retired and that Pope Benedict intends to
take this opportunity to scrap and amalgamate a number of dioceses,
appointing surprise new candidates to newly-created dioceses.
Elsehwhere, in his homily
at mass in St Mary’s Pro Cathedral in Dublin Sunday, the Primate of
Ireland, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin expressed his anger at the
“non-response” to allegations of abuse in the diocese of Cloyne and
anger at the fact that children had been put at risk.
He said that
“those in Church and State who have acted wrongly or inadequately
should assume accountability” and said that “great damage has been done
to the credibility of the Church in Ireland.”
He said this credibility would only be regained “by the church being more truly what the church is”.