IRELAND
Irish Times
Celebrant compares Dermot O’Mahony’s suffering in final years to that of some saints
Patsy McGarry
A bishop who was sharply criticised by an inquiry into the handling of clerical abuse allegations in the Dublin archdiocese had been “scapegoated”, an auxiliary bishop of Dublin told his funeral Mass yesterday.
Defending the memory of Dermot O’Mahony, who was also an auxiliary bishop of Dublin, Bishop Eamonn Walsh told mourners he had suffered in “a society that at the time ignored the spirit of equity”.
Bishop O’Mahony had been “a man of great integrity”, Bishop Walsh told the congregation in Shankill, which included the papal nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown.
Bishop Dermot O’Mahony was ‘a man of great integrity’
Murphy report
The Murphy report followed an investigation into how clerical child sex abuse allegations had been handled in the Dublin archdiocese between January 1st, 1975 and April 30th, 2004.
Bishop O’Mahony’s handling of complaints and suspicions of child sexual abuse was “particularly bad”, the report said, adding that he had been aware of complaints involving 13 priests. He resigned as president of the Irish Pilgrimage Trust, which brought disabled children to Lourdes, and was stood down from attending Confirmations.
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