VICTIM REACTION:CLERICAL ABUSE victims last night called on other bishops criticised in the Dublin archdiocese abuse report to resign.
Marie Collins, who was abused by a priest in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children as a child said the positions of senior clergy who mishandled abuse concerns were untenable.
“The other four auxiliaries who were part of the management of the diocese when these abusing priests were being moved from parish to parish, and allowed to abuse, they must go too,” she said.
Mervyn Rundle, who was abused as an 11-year-old boy, said the resignation of Bishop Murray was long overdue. “Bishop Murray resigned because he was backed into a corner and had no choice,” Mr Rundle said.
Mr Rundle was abused by serial child sex offender Fr Thomas Naughton. The Murphy report found that Bishop Murray’s handling of this case was “totally inadequate”.
Naughton was this week sentenced to three years in prison, with one year suspended, for abusing a boy on at least 70 occasions in Valleymount, Co Wicklow, between 1982 and 1984.
Another abuse victim, Andrew Madden, said senior members of the church’s hierarchy over a 30-year period had played a role in covering up allegations of abuse.
“To me it’s not believable that they were bishops in the diocese and didn’t know that sexual abuse was being covered up,” Mr Madden said.