THE “HONOURABLE thing for the Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan to do is to resign,” Maeve Lewis, chief executive with the One in Four group, has said.
Calls have been made for the bishop’s resignation also through newly-launched online and Facebook petitions.
Ms Lewis said that the bishop “has to take collective responsibility”.
She asked: “How many children were abused in Dublin between 1997 and 2005 when he was in a position of authority?”
She said: “It will be immeasurably damaging to both survivors and the Catholic Church if this process is dragged out indefinitely. We call on all concerned to provide real moral leadership by finding the courage to acknowledge responsibility for their actions and inactions and to resign immediately.”
At this Christmas time, she called on “members of the Catholic Church to stand up for the survivors of clerical abuse and to find ways, either individually or as congregations, to convey your feelings to the leadership of the church”. Reflecting on 2009, she described it as “a terrible year for Ireland.
The Ryan report and the Murphy report have revealed a horrifying world where vulnerable children were tortured and abused. The children were not invisible, but many people stood aside and failed to intervene.
“This happened in our lifetimes, and we all must assume responsibility. At the end of the day the Catholic Church is composed of ordinary people, many of whom are outraged by the behaviour of the hierarchy.”
A spokeswoman for Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said he would not be commenting further on the Murphy report until the New Year.
In Dublin, Catholic social activist Brendan Butler has launched an online petition calling on “all bishops and those in positions of authority in the Irish Catholic Church who failed, like Bishop Moriarty, to challenge the ‘prevailing culture’ of cover-up of clerical sex abuse to offer their resignations immediately.”
Its website is www.ipetitions.com/petition/brendan13/
The Malahide-based retired teacher has also set up a petition on Facebook under the heading “Call for resignations of Irish Catholic Bishops involved in cover-up.”
On Christmas Eve Mr Butler attended the Mass at which Dublin Auxiliary Bishop Ray Field announced he was offering to resign. Before the 10pm “midnight” Mass began at the Carmelite convent in Malahide, local parish priest Fr Gerard Tanham said that at its end Bishop Field would make an announcement. At the conclusion of the Mass, Bishop Field read a short statement and made no further comment.
Brendan Butler said that “if Bishop Ray had not announced his resignation I would have publicly challenged him in church. He said he wouldn’t be making any further statement, but he should give a reason – otherwise it looks like he was pushed out”.