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	Pope Benedict Rejects Bishops’ Resignations Irish Catholic August 11 2010 http://www.irishcatholic.ie/site/content/pope-benedict-rejects-bishops%E2%80%99-resignations Pope Benedict XVI has decided not to accept the resignation of two Dublin auxiliary bishops who resigned in the wake of the Murphy Report investigation in to clerical child abuse in the Dublin Diocese according to The Irish Catholic newspaper. Bishops Raymond Field and Eamonn Walsh resigned on Christmas Eve 2009 after coming under intense pressure because they served as bishops during the period investigated by the Murphy Commission. In a letter to priests of the Dublin Archdiocese and seen by The Irish Catholic Archbishop Diarmuid Martin confirmed the development. “Following the presentation of their resignations to Pope Benedict, it has been decided that Bishop Eamonn Walsh and Bishop Raymond Field will remain as Auxiliary bishops.” Archbishop Martin goes on to say the two men are “to be assigned revised responsibilities within the diocese”. Both bishops initially resisted calls for their resignation, however, both resigned on Christmas Eve and sent resignation letters to Rome after Archbishop Martin apparently failed to give them his total support. Bishop Walsh had insisted earlier that he had Archbishop Martin’s confidence. He offered his resignation when a spokesperson for the archbishop issued a statement clarifying that the archbishop had confidence in Bishop Walsh’s ministry.
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