THE ARCHBISHOP of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said last night he was writing to the Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray and all other auxiliary bishops who served in Dublin and who are named in the Dublin diocesan report.
Dr Martin said he was “not satisfied” with some of their responses so far. He pointed out that those bishops named in the report, but no longer serving in the Dublin archdiocese, could not tailor their responses to people in their current dioceses.What they did and did not do failed people in Dublin and they owe them a response, he said.
He hoped "that they will clarify their positions and respond appropriately." The archbishop was speaking on RTÉ One's Prime Timeprogramme last night.
Earlier yesterday, responding to a question from The Irish Times as to whether they believed Bishop Murray should resign, Ireland’s three other Catholic archbishops said he “has asked for the guidance of his priests and people as to whether his continuance as bishop would be a help or a hindrance to the diocese and he has stated that he will respond accordingly”.
The Catholic primate and Archbishop of Armagh Cardinal Séan Brady, the Archbishop of Cashel Dermot Clifford and the Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary continued in their joint response that “it is important therefore that he [Bishop Murray] be given time and space for this consultation process”.
Archbishop Martin said he was not the leader of the Church in Ireland. “Only two bishops lifted the phone [to him in recent days] and asked ‘are you ok?’,” he said.
There was “a need for strong leadership, Cardinal Brady and I are agreed on that,” he said. “I want answers that can stand up. This we have to see and I will have no difficulty in showing the answers I get.”
“If I am unhappy with answers . . . I don’t want to be sitting at meetings with people who have not responded to a very serious situation. . . Everyone should stand up and take responsibility for what they did,” he said.
In the Dáil yesterday, during a debate on the Dublin report, Taoiseach Brian Cowen described the failure of Church authorities to put children first and act decisively against priests who sexually abused children as “immoral, shameful and scandalous”.
But, under questioning from Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, he said it was a matter for the Church authorities and not for the State to deal with bishops implicated in the report.
The Taoiseach also defended the Vatican’s dealings with the Dublin Commission. He contended that the Holy See had acted in good faith by insisting that, as the Commission was a body set up by Government, all communications to the Vatican State should have been routed through diplomatic channels in accordance with international law and customs. “It is not unreasonable to assume the Holy See was open to responding to a further approach through formal diplomatic channels,” he said.