Bishop regrets radio remarks

BISHOP Willie Walsh is to issue a formal apology over the coming days to victims of clerical sexual abuse over comments he made on a national radio programme on Monday about his stance on calls for the resignation of Bishop of Limerick, Donal Murray. The Bishop of Killaloe unwittingly found himself in the eye of a storm this week when victim support groups criticised his failure to support calls for Bishop Murray to resign over his handling of some abuse cases, following the publication of the damning Commission of Investigation into the Archdiocese of Dublin (Murphy Report).
At the end of an interview with RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Bishop Walsh said calls for the resignation of Dr Murray were based on a “gross misreading” of the report and warned against a desire “to get a head on a plate”.
The statement prompted a number of calls from victims of abuse all over the country, including one from the Killaloe diocese, who were upset by the remarks.
A statement from Bishop Walsh apologising for the breaches of trust that occurred in relation to the abuse of children in his own diocese was read at weekend masses throughout the diocese, with the exception of Newmarket-on-Fergus.
There was speculation that it wasn’t read out in Newmarket due to criticisms in the Murphy Report of Newmarket native, the late Archbishop Kevin McNamara.
However, in an interview with The Clare Champion, Bishop Walsh revealed that his statement was not read out for reasons of sensitivity to a particular family and had nothing to do with Archbishop McNamara.
Director of  victim support group One in Four, Maeve Lewis, told The Clare Champion she had the height of respect for Bishop Walsh and what he had done in the area of child protection.
While Ms Lewis understood where Bishop Walsh was coming from in relation to Bishop Murray, she expressed disappointment with his statement on Monday.
Ms Lewis claimed Bishop Murray’s position is now “untenable” after the report had found his actions were “inexcuseable and unacceptable” in one case and led to other children being subsequently abused.
In spite of issuing public apologies, Ms Lewis stressed it is time for senior clergymen to take responsibility for their own actions. She stated emphatically that her call is not about trying to scapegoat any particular bishop.
“The report found there was a deliberate strategy by senior clergymen to protect the church and sex offenders at the expense of vulnerable young children,” she said.
Bishop Walsh admitted he reacted in a way that wasn’t appropriate when questioned about Bishop Murray and deeply regretted that he had caused deep hurt to victims of abuse.
“I deeply regret adding hurt to the hurt for the survivors of abuse. I have spent hours listening to people who were abused and I have some idea of the hurt involved. The last thing I wanted to do was to add further hurt and I am very sorry for this bad judgement.
“I did feel I was between a rock and a hard place. I know Donal Murray for the past 15 years. I know the very important work he has done for the Irish Episalaetical Conference.
“I felt that for that reason, I was not going to act as judge and jury. It is not my style to act in judgement of anyone. I am too well aware of my own fralities and that I make mistakes.
“I could not put my hand on my heart and say I have not made a mistake in handling this issue over the past 15 years. Anyone who rang me to express their opinion, I returned their call and apologised to them individually,” he said.
Asked if he now felt that Bishop Murray should resign, Bishop Walsh said that everyone, including himself, had to seriously examine their own conscience and try to see how anything may have contributed to this horrible story.
The bishop acknowledged that all bishops had to be accountable to survivors of abuse, to people and to God. He then expressed confidence that his colleagues would examine their own conscience in this regard.
He agreed that Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, is entitled to ask any of the bishops named in the report for an explanation of their actions at the time and noted that Archbishop Martin had pointed out they were answerable to Dublin people and the diocese following crimes of abuse.
Bishop Murray, who served 14 years as auxiliary bishop in the Dublin Archdiocese from 1982 to 1996, denied that he failed to act when allegations of sexual abuse came to his attention.
“I wish to state that I never deliberately or knowingly sought to cover up or withhold information brought to my attention. There were, as the report notes, occasions when roles/responsibilities were not clear or where I did not have full information concerning cases in which I was asked to become involved,” said Bishop Murray.
However, had he succeeded in deriving more information into these cases “it might have been possible to prevent some of the dreadful suffering of child abuse,” he said.