POLITICAL REACTION:FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny has said that all bishops implicated in the Dublin diocesan report should resign immediately.
Mr Kenny said those who were in positions of authority in Dublin archdiocese, and knew what was going on, should no longer continue in such positions. “This is another appalling litany of shame. Apologies here are not good enough,” he said.
“This is a case where men protected guilty men. This is where those people in authority and leadership knew what was going on,” Mr Kenny added.
The call for resignations came as the Labour Party said that any of the bishops implicated in the report should no longer be involved in education (bishops assume responsibility for the Catholic faith schools in their dioceses).
Mr Kenny, who was speaking at a Fine Gael event in Dublin yesterday afternoon, would not be drawn into naming any specific bishops, serving or retired.
When asked about his views on the status of Cardinal Desmond Connell, he responded in a general way without naming Dr Connell or any other bishop.
A spokesman for Mr Kenny later said: “Enda Kenny was referring to those bishops who were knowingly involved in moving around paedophile priests and it is these bishops that should resign immediately.”
While not calling for any specific resignations, he had expressed concern that the cover-up of abuse had continued into the 1990s, the spokesman said.
“From the point of view of personal leadership and integrity . . . those who were in those positions, and who are still in position, should not continue in those positions,” he added.
Former Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte said that the question of whether bishops implicated in the Murphy report should resign or not was a matter for the Catholic Church.
However, he said that they should no longer have any role in education. “Whether a bishop should remain as a patron of a school or otherwise continue in the management or supervision of education or health provision for children is a matter for the State,” Mr Rabbitte said.
“Therefore, where a bishop has been directly implicated in the Murphy report, he should have no role as a school patron,” he added.
Asked if some members of the clergy who were criticised in the Murphy report should consider resigning from their positions, Minister for the Environment John Gormley said: “Those are matters for the members of the clergy; and I try not to involve myself in clerical matters but certainly there are questions to be answered and it is a matter for those individuals.
“They have to examine their consciences, if I can use that phrase, but the revelations are truly shocking and in light of those revelations they have to look at the moral issues.”