Support for Bishop's resignation as search for successor begins
IT is expected that the Bishop and Leighlin's offer of resignation will be accepted relatively quickly by Pope Benedict, paving the way for a new diocesan head to be appointed early in 2010.
Bishop Jim Moriarty will remain in office until Rome selects his successor. However, in the event that no replacement has been identified by the Pope within eight days of the resignation being accepted, a caretaker bishop will be installed in the interim.
According to a diocesean spokesperson, the caretaker bishop, who will have certain powers and responsibilities, will be a priest selected from a parish in the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin
Parishioners attending Christmas Masses across Kildare were asked to pray for Bishop Moriarty, who last week tendered his resignation following mounting public pressure.
After 48 years of ministry the Bishop offered his resignation to Pope Benedict last Wednesday (December 23) following his naming in the Murphy Commission Report published last month.
At Masses around the county, the Bishop's decision was supported. The Christmas Day sermon by parish priest Fr John Brickley at the Church of Our Lady and St David in Naas stated that Bishop Moriarty was a "diligent and dedicated" bishop and resigned so that the Church could find a way forward.
In Newbridge, Fr Pat Hughes, speaking at Cill Mhuire church said that the survivors of the abuse are the main priority but asked massgoers to pray for the Bishop and his family at this difficult time.
In the north of the county in Kilcock, parish priest Fr PJ Byrne told the congregation attending Christmas services that he was saddened at the news of the resignation of "a good man, a good teacher and a good bishop". Fr Byrne told the gathering that Bishop Moriarty has been very kind to him personally.
"However, while we are all sad to lose him we accept the wisdom of his decision and we respect it. We hope that it will bring some healing and reconciliation to the survivors."
Fr Byrne added that he accepted that Bishop Moriarty did not challenge the culture of the institution of the Church that gave rise to this kind of thing in the first place.
"We do need now to let go and let die a particular form of clericism and to build a new style Church based more on service than on hierarchy or rank."
Fr Byrne told the Leinster Leader that parishioners were, for the most part, in favour of the bishop's decision to step down and that it was considered an inevitable fact.
"Now we will all be getting on with it. There are many other issues pressing."
In a statement detailing his decision to step down Bishop Moriarty accepted that from the time he became an Auxiliary Bishop, he should have challenged the prevailing culture adding that he was "part of the governance of the Archdiocese" which had "failed to respond properly to criminal acts against children".
Bishop Moriarty was mentioned in the Murphy Commission's report as having received a complaint of abuse about one of the most notorious abusers in the report, Fr Edmondus, a pseudonym used by the authors of the Murphy Report.
He received the complaint in 1993 from a curate who worked in the same parish as the offender which alleged that he was "driving young girls around in his car, the girls sometimes changed in his house before going swimming, was giving young children money and was not allowing adults into his house – unless they were very old or young".
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Weather for Naas, Ireland
Thursday 17 May 2012
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