Ireland's Department of Justice released the report of its special Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin on Thursday. The Commission was headed by Judge Yvonne Murphy. The chief finding of the "Murphy report" is that four archbishops of Dublin systematically covered up child abuse crimes by several Dublin priests and did so for over four decades.
Ireland had been bracing itself for more disclosures after the release of the Ryan Report in May. The Ryan Report exposed not only clerical sexual abuse of minors, but also clerical abuse by physical violence and by neglect in church institutions for child “care.”
The Department of Justice' Commission investigated the response of the bishops to specific complaints of sexual abuse in just the Archdiocese of Dublin. The report accused the church of "an obsessive culture of secrecy and a desire to preserve the power and aura of the Church and to avoid giving scandal to their congregations."
The leader of the Fine Gael Party, Enda Kenny, has called on all bishops named in the Murphy Report to resign. Rape crisis lines have seen a three-fold increase of people calling in to report abuses. Meanwhile, the Vatican tries to maintain distance and pass the buck back to local church authorities.
Photo: The last four Dublin archbishops
Comments