The infamous Chapter 19 of the Murphy report is out … and so I blogged about it yesterday here, but why return to it once again? Well because there is a well-written article in todays Irish Times, that warrants a mention. Here is a selection of sound-bites followed by a link to the full article …
The list of senior clerics who knew of Fr Tony Walsh’s serial sexual abuse of children and did nothing to stop it is virtually endless…
…In the course of those 17 years, until the archdiocese finally decided in 1995 to co-operate with Garda investigations, Walsh abused well over 100 children…
…the possibility of reporting to the gardaí was raised”. The suggestion was shot down by the archdiocese’s leading canon lawyer at the time, Msgr Gerard Sheehy, who described it as “an outrageous suggestion”. Also present at that meeting were archbishop Connell and bishops Kavanagh, O’Mahony and Murray….
… Two key points emerge: first, that Bishop Eamonn Walsh (a trained barrister, incidentally) was sufficiently well-aware of the criminal nature of Walsh’s activities to know that he should be reported to the Garda; and second, that Bishop Walsh did not report him, and nor of course did any of his fellow bishops…
…Msgr Stenson had heard that the garda was asking around and rang him to find out how much he knew. In the course of the conversation, the garda asked Msgr Stenson if Walsh had a past record. “I evaded that,”…
The complete Irish Times article can be found here.
Upon the release of the report last year there was a press conference with the Bishop of Dublin. When challenged, he claimed it was only a few bad priests. This revelation now blows away any such claims and fully exposes it as an outright lie, they all knew and they all conspired to not only keep it hidden but to also protect the abusers.
What is quite interesting is that if this had been any other organization, the boy scouts, a corporate entity, a government department, the police would have been all over it and would not only locked up the abusers, but also prosecuted all those who conspired to protect the abusers … yet in this one instance they apparently get a special get-out-of-jail-free card simply because they “believe” they have some special authority.
You and I have just as much authority as any priest, bishop or pope, its just that there are fewer people who believe it.
UPDATE: Here is a detailed breakdown of the main points in Chapter 19