Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

From today's Irish Times, two ad intra glimpses at the fallout of Thursday's devastating Murphy Report on abuse in the Dublin church.

On the high-hat front....

PRESSURE ON the five bishops who still hold office and whose handling of clerical child sex abuse was addressed by the Dublin diocesan report increased throughout yesterday.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said all bishops implicated in the report should resign immediately. He said those who were in positions of authority in Dublin archdiocese, and who knew what was going on, should no longer continue in such positions.

“This is another appalling litany of shame. Apologies here are not good enough,” he said....

Speaking at foundation day ceremonies at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin yesterday, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, said the story of how the sexual abuse of children was managed in the archdiocese, as shown in the report, “was inexcusable”.

He noted that “regrettably this hospital was also the scene of abuse by at least two chaplains, who exploited their role of representing the care of Jesus for the children at their most vulnerable. Information about that abuse was inexcusably not shared with the hospital authorities, even though the archbishop of the time was also the chairman of the board.”

...while priests are feeling the sting at ground level:

A PROMINENT priest in the diocese of Derry has said the Catholic Church in Ireland no longer had any standing, credibility or moral authority following the disclosures in the Archdiocese of Dublin.

Fr Michael Canny, spokesman for the Derry Diocese, said he would probably spend the rest of his life as a priest trying to rebuild trust and confidence in the Catholic Church as a result of the inquiry’s finding that the church routinely covered up clerical sex abuse of children.

Describing the abuse as depraved and incomprehensible, he said the reputation of the Catholic Church was “in tatters”, and said people were rightly angry.

“There is no good in saying other than the truth. The church at this state has no credibility, no standing and no moral authority. The issue is now one of trust, and that is why it will take the rest of my lifetime as a priest to build up that trust again, because the trust and confidence in the church has been broken on a fundamental level.

“I must admit I am angry at the way the abuse was handled. I feel betrayed and let down to a terrible extreme,” he continued.

What's more, amid heavy criticism (even from bishops) of both the Holy See and its nuncio to Ireland over their failure to respond to the state inquiry, the Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi SJ told the paper that the "commission had not gone through 'appropriate diplomatic channels.'"

As for the whole scenario, the director of the Holy See Press Office said that "We leave all comment to the local church involved."

On the paper's website, a reader poll is currently split 3-2 on whether "the Catholic Church has a future" in Ireland in the report's aftermath... with the "No" side holding the lead.

SVILUPPO: In comments to the Sunday Business Post, the Isle's former primate -- retired Cardinal Cahal Daly of Armagh -- termed the disclosures "beyond belief."

Now 92, Daly led St Patrick's diocese from 1990 until 1996.

PHOTO: AP

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