Saturday, August 27, 2011

Bishop Magee's deputy 'should have resigned'

Bishop John Magee's number two, Monsignor Denis O'Callaghan, has admitted he should have resigned as child protection delegate rather than continue in a job where he disagreed with the child protection guidelines he was supposed to enforce.

Msgr O'Callaghan came in for sharp criticism in the Cloyne Report for his role in failing to respond appropriately to abuse allegations.

In a letter published in The Irish Catholic newspaper, Msgr O'Callaghan, who had responsibility for child safeguarding in the diocese, insists that his primary focus was always on the pastoral care of 'everyone suffering the consequences of sex abuse, primarily the victim but also the transgressor.'

He wrote: 'Judge Yvonne Murphy was made aware of the Cloyne commitment to pastoral care but the commission focussed on its remit of reporting on whether or not procedures were fulfilled.'

He also appears to justify his non-acceptance of mandatory reporting to the civil authorities of abuse allegations insisting that 'for most of those priests accused in Cloyne the complaints alleged incidents dating back over 30 or 40 years.

'Of those priests some would now be terminally ill while others would be under constant medical care.

'The literal guidelines did not allow for any discretion to bishops and to their delegates. Reporting was to be made immediately. No exception was to be made even when an accused priest was on his death-bed,' he adds.