FRANCES D'EMILIO, SHAWN POGATCHNIK
11:59 a.m. CST, December 17, 2009
VATICAN CITY (AP) — A Roman Catholic bishop in Ireland has resigned after an investigation into child sex abuse by clergymen accused him of ignoring reports of crimes by priests in his diocese, the Vatican said Thursday.
…The investigation found that four other serving bishops and five retired bishops, including Cardinal Desmond Connell, played a role in a decade of cover-up.
The report said church leaders in the Dublin Archdiocese failed to inform authorities about sexual abuse by priests, while police failed to pursue allegations because they considered church figures to be above the law.
…One abuse survivor, former altar boy Andrew Madden, said Murray's resignation was not enough and other church leaders should quit too.
…"Their continued presence in office is an insult to every child sexually abused by a priest in the Dublin Archdiocese. They display a contemptible level of arrogance and a shocking lack of humility," Madden said.
…The Vatican has been harshly criticized in Ireland, a nation of staunch Catholic traditions, for failing to answer letters from the Dublin Archdiocese investigators.
…The 720-page report found that dozens of church leaders in Ireland's most populous diocese kept secret the record of child abuse by more than 170 clerics since 1940.
Police and social workers charged with stopping child abuse didn't start getting cooperation from the church until 1995. This opened the floodgates to thousands of abuse complaints expected to cost the Dublin Archdiocese euro20 million ($30 million).
The leader of an American group campaigning against Catholic cover-ups of pedophile priests welcomed Murray's resignation but said it wasn't nearly enough.
This about the reckless endangerment of children in a calculated, purposeful strategy to protect the institutional Church - By Jason Walsh - The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com
Irish bishop quits over child abuse cover-up - December 18, 2009 Edition 2 – Cape Times
______________________
Someday, maybe,
there will exist a well-informed,
well-considered, and yet fervent public conviction
that the most deadly of all possible sins
is the
mutilation of a child's spirit.
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