IRELAND
Herald
Susan Gately – 16 December 2015
A heartfelt apology by a bishop criticised in the Murphy Report was never made public, giving the perception he did not express remorse, his funeral Mass was told.
Bishop Dermot O’Mahony wrote to the Archdiocese of Dublin and its Archbishop in 2009 profoundly regretting if any “action or inaction” of his “contributed to the suffering of even a single child”.
Bishop O’Mahony died on December 10, aged 80, following a long illness.
His brother, Gerry O’Mahony, told mourners at St Anne’s Church, Shankill, Co Dublin, that as his apology was not published, the public never believed he had shown remorse.
“It was something that haunted him to the very end of his life,” Mr O’Mahony added.
The Murphy Report into child sex abuse found Bishop O’Mahony had failed to tell the National Rehabilitation Hospital, Dublin diocesan authorities or gardai that Fr Noel Reynolds, who was a chaplain to the hospital, had a problem with child sexual abuse.
Mr O’Mahony yesterday described his late brother as “gentle, deeply spiritual, caring, a great believer in justice and peace and the dignity of man, in particular the handicapped, underprivileged and the voiceless”.
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