Madam, – Since the publication of the Murphy report there have been demands for heads to roll and quite rightly so. However, I believe we should also be directing our attention to the present. At this very moment there may be children throughout the country being abused. If action were taken now, these unfortunate children could be saved from further abuse.
Instead of waiting for commissions to be set up to investigate child abuse in other dioceses, bishops and priests who are aware or suspect some of their colleagues to be abusing children should immediately reveal their names to the local gardaí – along with the names of clergy who have been moved around by their bishops to different parishes in Ireland or abroad.
This would demonstrate that the Catholic Church had got the message and that for child sex abusers no cover-up would be tolerated. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Thanks to Anne Le Marquand Hartigan (December 3rd) for alerting me to the silence of “ordinary priests and nuns”. Let me now stand up and be counted. I strongly believe that the bishops indicted in the Murphy report should publicly accept this personal responsibility and, if they are currently in office, should resign.
Let me clarify some points: 1. We need to distinguish between the church (all baptised members) and the institutional church which has so grievously offended in this matter. 2. The guilt of these heinous crimes should be attributed not to the church as a whole, but to those individuals who are personally responsible. 3. Bishops cannot be “de-bishoped”. A man may be removed from an office but he remains a bishop. 4. The bishops of Ireland do not owe obedience to any one of their own – only to the Pope. 5. My faith does not rest on the moral quality of any priest or bishop. It is a direct relationship to God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I am very happy to appreciate good priests and bishops and to encourage them in these hard times. – Yours, etc,