ONE OF Ireland’s most respected and senior Catholic Church figures has suggested that the Bishop of Cloyne Dr John Magee might consider the example of Jesus Christ when it comes to contemplating resignation.
Fr Enda McDonagh, former professor of Moral Theology at St Patrick’s College Maynooth, has said that, where Bishop Magee is concerned, there is “a much deeper and more Christian reason for accepting resignation, the example of Jesus Christ himself. He freely accepted his death as a criminal, despite the protests of his friends and the baying of his enemies”.
On December 19th Cloyne diocese published a report from the Catholic Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children, which described child protection practices there as “inadequate and in some respects dangerous”.
It also found that Bishop Magee had a policy of supplying “minimal’’ information to State authorities when reporting allegations of clerical child sex abuse to them.
In the current edition of the Furrow magazine, Fr McDonagh noted that “in any breakdown of trust . . . the first resort is not necessarily resignation.”
But, he said, “the argument that resignation would be yielding to the unfair pressures of the media or other pressure groups such as One in Four is not cogent.”
He added: “Why should such pressure discourage anyone from doing the right thing?”
