Bishop Eamonn Casey’s niece: "Remove my uncle’s body from crypt"

Patricia Donovan also criticized the Church over its continuing silence since damning new revelations were aired almost three months ago in an RTÉ documentary produced in association with the Irish Mail on Sunday.

The documentary – "Bishop Casey’s Buried Secrets" – revealed that the Vatican banned Casey from public ministry for life after multiple child sexual abuse allegations were received against him.

 Amid the fallout after its airing, there were widespread calls to remove Casey’s remains from the crypt in Galway Cathedral, where he was buried in March 2017 with all the pomp and ceremony usually reserved for a prince of the Church.

Ms Donovan claims her bishop uncle carried out some of his alleged assaults on her in the same cathedral. Writing in today’s MoS, Ms Donovan called for Casey’s remains to be removed from the crypt and for him to be stripped of "all the symbols of power the Church gave him in life".

She also criticized the Church over its ongoing refusal to respond to widespread calls for Casey’s remains to be reinterred.

In the wake of the latest revelations about the former Bishop of Galway and Kerry, the Bishop of Galway Michael Duignan acknowledged the profound distress that it had caused. In a statement issued on July 23, he said: "I share these feelings."

"My priority is that any person who was betrayed or harmed by Bishop Casey is heard and that their experiences are appropriately acknowledged and recognized."

But 78 days on, there has been no further response from the Galway Diocese, other than to say it is "actively availing of the time and space it requires to address the sensitive issues that surround the life and legacy of Bishop Eamonn Casey", and it continues "to invite anyone affected by these issues to make contact with our Diocesan Designated Liaison Person".

The Vatican has refused to respond to repeated queries from the MoS since the documentary aired. Ms Donovan also said no one from the "Galway Diocese, nor any diocese", has attempted to contact her since the documentary was aired.

She added that such a contact "is the minimum they should do to attempt to heal some of the harm done to me by Church, both the trauma of the actual abuse and the trauma of how it has been handled since".

Ms Donovan challenged the Catholic Church "to acknowledge" it "failed to protect children and vulnerable adults from harm by Bishop Casey".

She added: "They should also acknowledge he should never have been buried as a bishop. He should now be removed from the crypt and all of the symbols of power the Church gave him in life be removed from him in death.

"This honor is no longer his, it was never his, and he should be dealt with as an ordinary man who has done a great deal of evil."

Ms Donovan, from Limerick, first reported Casey for alleged abuse in 2005, which allegedly took place over a decade from the late 1960s. She spoke out for the first time in 2019 to the MoS, which extensively reported details of her allegations, along with separate abuse claims made by other women.

In the RTÉ documentary, Ms Donovan recalled the moment she finally decided to pick up the phone and report her uncle to the authorities.

"I had found out that he was visiting someone and staying overnight where there was a teenage girl… that was what was in my mind when I picked up the phone. All I thought of was that girl," she said.

Bishop Casey resigned in 1992 after fathering a child with his distant American cousin, Annie Murphy.

He remained out of ministry for the last 12 years of his life, from at least 2005 until his death on March 13, 2017, aged 89.

In July, the MoS revealed the Vatican secretly banned Casey from public ministry for life after allegations of child sexual abuse were made against him.

The Vatican confirmed it banned Bishop Casey from ministry before 2006, and re-iterated that ban to him the following year.

The Vatican statement also revealed that the ban was never lifted- despite appeals by Casey and his supporters that he should be allowed to return to ministry.

* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.