The Catholic Church did not engage in a cover-up of the 1972 IRA Claudy bombing, Archbishop of Armagh Seán Brady and Bishop of Derry Seamus Hegarty said today.
In a joint statement, which followed the release of the Police Ombudsman's Report into the 1972 bombing, they said the Church did not prevent the possibility of arresting and questioning of suspect Fr James Chesney.
The report says Fr Chesney was transferred to a parish in Co Donegal following secret talks between the then northern secretary William Whitelaw and the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal William Conway.
"As the Ombudsman finds in his statement today, the Church was approached by the secretary of state at the instigation of senior members of the RUC. Furthermore, the Church subsequently reported back to the secretary of state the outcome of its questioning of Fr Chesney into his alleged activities," the statement said.
"The actions of Cardinal Conway or any other Church authority did not prevent the possibility of future arrest and questioning of Fr Chesney," they added.
"As the Ombudsman's statement points out, Fr Chesney until the time of his death in 1980, 'is known to have regularly travelled across the Border but was never arrested, questioned nor further investigated by the RUC in connection with the Claudy bombings or other terrorist activity'," the statement said.
"Throughout the Troubles, the Catholic Church, along with other churches in Northern Ireland, was constant in its condemnation of the evil of violence," the statement said. "It is therefore shocking that a priest should be suspected of involvement in such violence. This case should have been properly investigated and resolved during Father Chesney's lifetime."
The statement said that if there was sufficient evidence to link him to criminal activity, Fr Chesney should have been arrested and questioned at the earliest opportunity. "We agree with the Police Ombudsman that the fact this did not happen failed those who were murdered, injured and bereaved in the bombings."
Northern Secretary Owen Paterson said he was "profoundly sorry" that Fr Chesney was not investigated for his "suspected involvement" in the incident.
"My anger at the actions of those responsible for the attack is matched in strength by my sorrow that the
survivors of the atrocity and the relatives of the dead did not see those responsible brought to justice for their crimes," he said.
"I recognise, of course, that all those involved in combating terrorism at the time were making decisions in exceptionally difficult circumstances and under extreme pressure."
Adrian Eakin, brother of Kathryn Eakin, the youngest of the Claudy victims, said he felt better towards Whitelaw, and successive British governments who covered up what happened. He said Whitelaw had been talking to the IRA at the time and did not want the priest arrested for fear that other Catholic priests would become targets for loyalist paramilitaries.
"The Government should hold up its hands and accept responsibility for the cover-up," he said. "They have refused to give the people of Claudy an inquiry into what happened and why no-one was brought to justice."
Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister said the report highlighted a "staggering trilogy of shame, deception and cover up" reaching to the heart of the Catholic Church and government, both at Westminster and Stormont.
"It is now clear the Catholic Church, in order to protect an IRA priest, was complicit in covering up mass murder in Claudy," he said. "Bringing the surviving Claudy bombers to justice is still a necessity, but in addition, despite the passage of time, the PSNI should now launch a no holes barred investigation into the perversion of the course of justice."
Sinn Féin spokesman Francie Molloy said the report, due to its limited remit, could never deliver the truth about the circumstances surrounding the bomb for the families of those killed.
"It is our view that what is required is an independent international truth commission which all participants in the conflict could participate fully in. This is a mechanism which could actually get to the truth and deliver closure for the families," he said.
"The deaths in Claudy were wrong and should not have happened. The families of the those who died or were injured there deserve and are entitled to the truth about the deaths of their loved ones."
