The Murphy report was released not too long ago. It was compiled by a commission to investigate how the Church and State authorities behaved towards the allegations and suspicions of child abuse by clerics of the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin. The commission in the report goes on to name some Auxiliary-Bishops who knew of the fact of abuse, but behaved irresponsibly with that information. They did not inform the Archbishop Connell very well, and he relied on them very much so for advice. These Archbishops were responsible for the decisions relating to appointment of priests, and were ignorant with regards to the appalling backgrounds of these priests. Other than that power to appoint, their power was rather ambiguous, and had no delegated authority for specific problems.
Archbishop Murray failed to investigate cases, and in one particular case, failed to reinvestigate them when they appeared to be related to the same priest. He finally admitted in 2002 that he was incompetent with regards to those matters. Murray once said something to the effect that the Archbishop knew the bigger picture. What that’s saying is, the Archbishops (who were appointed in great number) were ignorant of the situation, did not have proper authority for problems, and as a result did horribly to investigate claims of abuse. Furthermore, there might have been a massive conspiracy to cover up the evidence so as not to degrade the Church’s position in the public eye.
Finally in 1996, there was a more open sharing of information about these complaints, and information was given to a commission. Archbishop Murray resigned just recently over the contents of the new Murphy report, having said in a letter to Mass congregations, that he was very aware of the pain since the report was published. He is expected to go to Rome to offer his resignation. What a dreadful planet this is where corruption is allowed for even a little while to flourish.
