CAMPAIGNERS for survivors of sexual abuse say it was the ‘right decision’ to remove the remains of Bishop Eamonn Casey from the crypt of Galway Cathedral.
The family of disgraced bishop Eamonn Casey now face the prospect of whether to cremate his remains or bury him, after the Galway Diocese confirmed that his remains have been removed from the crypt of Galway Cathedral.
The move — which had been deliberated on for nearly a year by his family, the Galway Diocese and Catholic Church hierarchy — follows multiple allegations of child sexual abuse, and the revelation last year that he was removed from ministry by the Vatican a decade before he died, a restriction which was never publicly known.
Casey is the first Irish bishop to be removed from his resting place after the allegations of abuse were exposed, in addition to the alleged cover-up by the church amid public outcry.
Colm O’Gorman, who is a long-time campaigner for survivors of clerical sexual abuse, said the disinterment was “obviously the right decision”.
Mr O’Gorman, a survivor of abuse at the hands of the late Fr Seán Fortune, said that burying somebody in a "cathedral crypt makes a statement about that person’s standing and reputation, numbering them among the “great and the good”.
“Obviously, it [the burial in the cathedral crypt] was a source of great offence and hurt to Bishop Casey’s victims,” Mr O’Gorman added.
The founder of the One in Four group, which supports survivors of sexual abuse, said he hoped the decision to allow Casey’s family to re-inter his body elsewhere “would bring some closure to his victims , particularly because his interment there [in Galway Cathedral] caused very great hurt.”
Eamonn Casey, who was once one of Ireland’s most popular and publicly charismatic bishops, was the subject of an RTÉ documentary last year, produced in association with the Irish Mail on Sunday following a long-running investigation.
The documentary was presented by Anne Sheridan, now news editor of the Sunday Independent.
It revealed that Casey faced five child abuse allegations, over four decades, from the 1950s to the 1980s, and in every Irish diocese where he served.
Three of those allegations relate to the Limerick diocese, with one woman receiving a settlement of over €100,000. Another woman received a settlement through the Residential Institutions Redress Board.
Casey’s niece, Patricia Donovan, made a complaint to gardaí that she was abused by him from the age of five for over a decade.
The programme revealed that Casey was formally removed from public ministry in 2007 by the Vatican, but the church never disclosed this to the public.
Fr Patsy Lynch, a Kerry priest who ripped up photos showing his ordination by Casey, who was then Bishop of Kerry, after the programme aired, also welcomed the move by the Galway Diocese.
He told the Irish Independent: “This action is long overdue. My thoughts are with Patricia Donovan and others abused by Eamonn Casey.”
A number of days after the programme aired, the Galway diocese released a statement saying: “The interment of Bishop Casey in the cathedral crypt now requires a period of careful consideration and consultation, which has already begun.
“Time and space are required to adequately and appropriately bring this undertaking to completion.”
Yesterday, nearly a year since the programme aired, the diocese said Casey’s remains “have been moved from the cathedral crypt and entrusted to the care” of the family.
Patricia Donovan, from Limerick, first reported Bishop Casey for alleged abuse in 2005 after it allegedly began in the late 1960s for over a decade. Ms Donovan spoke out for the first time in 2019.
Detectives in Limerick travelled to England to take a statement from her in January 2006 but, by August of the same year, the Director of Public Prosecutions directed that no charges be brought on 13 sample allegations.
Bishop Casey later said that he was ‘utterly amazed’ by the speed of the decision from the DPP, claiming that he had only been interviewed by gardai a few weeks prior.
He denied her allegations.
He was never convicted of any crimes.