17 Dec, 2009, Europe

An Irish bishop resigned weeks after handling of child sex abuse allegations was severely criticised. The report on abuse by the priests in Dublin Archdiocese found that Donal Murray’s was handling a case while an auxiliary bishop in the 1980s was inexcusable. The Vatican said that the Pope had accepted his resignation as bishop of the Limerick.

The Murphy report in abuse in Dublin Archdiocese from 1975 to 2004 was a highly critical report of the Catholic Church hierarchy’s handling of the priests suspected of being child abusers. The report claimed that many bishops were more concerned with preserving the reputation of church rather than protecting the children. It found that in Dr Murray’s time as an auxiliary bishop in Dublin from 1982 to 1996 was dismissive of complaints about one priest who went on to abuse again. Dr Murray had said that he had taken full time to study the report before deciding to resign.

Dr Murray had held talks about the future plans with the Pope in Vatican last week.

He said that Pope Benedict had accepted the resignation but agreed that Dr Murray should return to Limerick allowing him to be in his diocese when the announcement was made. The Murphy report claimed that Bishop Murray did not deal properly with suspicions and concerns which were expressed to him in relation to one priest, Fr Tom Naughton in 1983.