Kerry cleric Fr Patsy Lynch said that he has been left ‘horrified’ by revelations that emerged in the programme Bishop Casey’s Buried Secrets which aired on RTÉ One on Monday, July 22.
It was produced in association with the Irish Mail on Sunday following a lengthy investigation.
Fr Lynch, a priest in Prior/Ballinskelligs, Co. Kerry, was ordained byBishop Casey on June 9, 1974, while the latter was the Bishop of Kerry.
The cleric said: ‘What was revealed was shocking, frightening and horrifying. I am removing all the pictures I have of him [Bishop Casey] and am tearing them up. I would encourage others to do the same.
‘Just tear them up. I would urge any priests to get rid of them.’
Fr Lynch, 75, continued: ‘It’s unfortunate I had to do this but I couldn’t open my album and see that man knowing all that has happened. I am at peace now. I feel that I did the right thing.
‘Ever since the programme has come out I have been thinking of this and giving it careful thought. I have now consigned those images to the bin.’
The documentary revealed that at least five child sexual abuse allegations had been received against Bishop Casey in every Irish diocese where he served, with the incidents allegedly occurring from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Among those who lodged an allegation of abuse against Bishop Casey was his niece Patricia Donovan, who filed her complaint to police in the UK in 2005 and later to gardaí in Limerick, who travelled to Britain, where she was living at the time.
As the Galway Diocese considers whether the remains of Bishop Casey should stay in the crypt of Galway Cathedral, where they were interred alongside other deceased bishops of the diocese following his funeral Mass in March 2017, Fr Lynch has urged that the Church must now show leadership and try to help heal those who have suffered.
He said: ‘There is no leadership from the Catholic Church, no leadership from the bishops, all the control is left with priests. They need to take some sort of stance on this. We appear to be repeating all the same mistakes the Church made in the past.
‘There are too many members of the clergy giving evasive answers. These are all pastoral opportunities; we should go out now and be among the people. But everything is so guarded.
‘Now is the time for leadership and we haven’t got it. They are not connecting with reality at all. I’m so disappointed.’
He also said: ‘It’s all about control, control, control. We have to be a changed Church.’
Fr Lynch also wanted to address Ms Donovan, Bishop Casey’s niece, who claims she was abused by the late cleric from the age of five, for more than a decade, and who spoke out for the first time on camera in the programme.
‘I admire that woman, such a strong woman and so composed. It’s unthinkable to do that [abuse] to a child. She is in my thoughts and prayers,’ he said.
Fr Lynch said he believes that Bishop Casey’s remains should be removed from the crypt and buried elsewhere, potentially in Limerick where his family lived for most of their lives.
Regarding the allegations against Bishop Casey, he said: ‘It’s there in black and white. There is no denying it. And I don’t think we still know the full story. And to think that he got such a send-off [in Galway]. It should never, ever have come to this.
‘Some of those bishops [in attendance at his funeral Mass] had to know something.’
He continued: ‘We all knew about Annie Murphy. We all knew he was the life and soul of the party, and that he was so charismatic. He couldn’t get enough of the attention. But he showed no remorse, no forgiveness, right up to the very end.
‘When Ian Elliott [former CEO of Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland] says in the programme that this man was a sexual predator, that’s all I need to know.
‘He is a man who knows the meaning of these terms.’
The documentary, Bishop Casey’s Buried Secrets, has now been viewed more than 600,000 times.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for RTÉ said that the consolidated RTÉ One viewership figure is 515,000. In addition, there have been another 114,000 views on the RTÉ Player, bringing the total number to more than 629,000.
Bishop Casey was never charged or convicted for any alleged sexual crime, against a child or an adult.
However, the Vatican banned him from public ministry for life, reiterating the ban in 2007 after it received multiple allegations of child sexual abuse. The Church never communicated the ban to the public in his lifetime.