BISHOP JOHN MAGEE:AN INCIDENT in which Bishop John Magee gave a 17-year-old aspirant priest a prolonged embrace is one of the complaints dealt with in the report.
Bishop Magee is the only one of the 19 clerics to be named.
The complaint about Bishop Magee was dealt with appropriately but illustrates the need to have a clear mechanism for dealing with complaints against bishops, according to the Murphy commission.
In December 2008, the diocesan delegate in Cloyne, Fr Bill Bermingham, received a phone-call from Joseph, who had once contemplated entering the priesthood.
In a meeting with Fr Bermingham, Joseph gave a history of continuous involvement with the church throughout his youth and regularly encountered Bishop Magee. At 17½, he was accepted as a candidate for the priesthood but could not take up his place in the seminary until he was 18.
By this stage, Joseph and Bishop Magee had each other’s mobile numbers and texted to make appointments.
Later, because of changed family circumstances, Joseph decided not to take up his place in the seminary. He met Bishop Magee in his residence to tell him of his decision. It was, he told Fr Bermingham, the first time he had spent time alone with the bishop.
He said that during the meeting, Bishop Magee embraced him tightly, asked whether he “felt good” and kissed him on the forehead. “Joseph reported that this embrace was protracted; it lasted for approximately one minute.”
He had a number of further meetings with the bishop, some when he was under 18 and some when he was over 18. During these meetings, there were similar prolonged tight embraces and kisses on the forehead.
“According to Joseph, the bishop declared that he loved him and told him that he had dreamt about him – this may have happened before he was 18 or soon after.”
At the time, Joseph considered the bishop’s words and actions as “paternal” and neither made him feel uneasy.
However, he later reviewed his interactions with the bishop and told the commission that he began “to interpret what had happened between us from a fresh perspective and I began to think that maybe it wasn’t as innocent as I originally thought or assumed it was”.
Fr Bermingham contacted Ian Elliott of the Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children and they agreed that what had occurred was not child abuse and was not reportable to the HSE or the Garda.
However, it did amount to a “boundary infringement” and constituted inappropriate behaviour.
Fr Bermingham was also required to report the matter to his superior, who was of course Bishop Magee.
He told the commission that, when he met him in January 2009, Bishop Magee stated words to the effect that he would never harm that young man.
Fr Bermingham then told Dermot Clifford, Archbishop of Cashel and Emly and the metropolitan archbishop for the Cloyne diocese, that Bishop Magee had admitted to the gestures described by Joseph.
Archbishop Clifford phoned Cardinal Seán Brady to tell him of the complaint and informed the papal nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza.
Archbishop Clifford then spoke to Bishop Magee about the complaint. According to Archbishop Clifford, Bishop Magee denied that he had kissed Joseph on the forehead but said he had made the sign of the cross on his forehead.
He admitted saying to Joseph that he had dreamt of him and explained this by saying that he dreamt of him “as a lovely priest”.
Bishop Magee explained that his intention in saying that he loved Joseph was to comfort the young man when he was upset with family problems.
Archbishop Clifford contacted the boundary counsellor and expressed concerns that Bishop Magee might infringe boundaries again because he appeared to be in a vulnerable state.
At the end of January, the Irish bishops met to discuss child protection issues. Archbishop Clifford told the commission the meeting heard strong opinions for and against the resignation of Bishop Magee. After the meeting, Bishop Magee was asked to consider various options, including standing aside as bishop to allow an administrator to take over.
The papal nuncio also had a private meeting with Bishop Magee. The commission says it does not know what was said at this meeting but it appears he asked the bishop to stand down while the commission was doing its work.
In March, Fr Bermingham reported the complaint to the HSE and the Garda after Archbishop Clifford and he decided that the better course of action was to report. “One interpretation could be that it was grooming, another could be that he felt very sorry for him,” the archbishop told the commission.
Archbishop Clifford met Joseph later in March. Joseph claims that at this meeting the archbishop put a lot of energy into defending Bishop Magee’s actions and said the embrace was “an Italianate gesture”, a habit picked up from his years in Rome.
Archbishop Clifford denied he had put a lot of energy into defending the bishop’s actions.
Joseph told gardaí he did not want them to investigate and the Director of Public Prosecutions directed that there be no prosecution as no criminal offence had occurred.
The church authorities proposed no further action and Bishop Magee resigned in March 2010.
The commission says the case raises issues about “soft information” and how it is dealt with. It also illustrates the desirability of having a person independent of the diocese as the designated child protection officer.
In relation to the naming of Bishop Magee, the report says it was not possible to report the complaint without identifying him.
The handling by church authorities of concerns in relation to a bishop was different from that applying to priests, and there was only one bishop in Cloyne.
