O’Dea refuses to support Murray over abuse report

By Mary Regan, Jimmy Woulfe, Cormac O’Keeffe and Evelyn Ring

Monday, November 30, 2009

A SENIOR Government minister has urged Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray to "make the appropriate decision" on whether he should resign, after the Murphy Report criticised his handling of abuse allegations.

As Taoiseach Brian Cowen came under further criticism for his response to the child abuse report, Defence Minister Willie O’Dea refused the opportunity to fully endorse Bishop Murray, whom he knows personally.

The Limerick East TD said last night that Bishop Murray "is a person who would think deeply about these things, is examining his situation at the moment and he will make the appropriate decision".

The Taoiseach has stopped short of calling for the resignation of any bishops shown to have mishandled complaints and is likely to be questioned on the issue in the Dáil tomorrow.

Abuse survivors strongly criticised Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin, who yesterday claimed that a decision of resignation was up to individuals themselves, and not the Church.

Dr Martin said: "Anybody who is named for having negative responsibility in the report should examine themselves in the light of what was happening then and the responsibilities today and the first decision must be theirs. I think it is the normal thing that the person would resign rather than be kicked out."

Founder of One in Four Colm O’Gorman said this was "disingenuous".

"This is up to the Pope and nobody else and it would be nice if Bishop Martin and others would make it clear that responsibility for what happens next in the Church sense rests with the Vatican," he said.

Bishop Murray said he would be guided by the priests and people of his diocese on whether he should resign after the Commission of Investigation into clerical abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese said his response to an abuse allegation was "inexcusable".

"As far as I am concerned, the question of whether I should resign is a question of whether my presence here is a help or a hindrance to the diocese of Limerick. In that matter, I will be guided by the priests and people of the diocese," Bishop Murray told worshippers at St Joseph’s church yesterday.

Mr O’Dea told RTE’s The Week in Politics last night that he was "bitterly disappointed" to read the report’s finding in relation to Bishop Murray.

"I know Donal Murray personally and I have always had a very good relationship with him and I find him a decent man. I must say that I am bitterly disappointed to read what I have read in the Murphy report," he said.

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, November 30, 2009