Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, has been slammed by the spokeswoman of an abuse victims group for his celebration of Mass in Dublin yesterday with two bishops named in the Murphy child abuse report.
O'Malley is in Dublin as part of a Vatican mission to examine how the post-sex abuse church is enforcing new guidelines.
The Murphy report was deeply critical of how the Dublin archdiocese handled the abuse issue
However, O'Malley concelebrated mass with Bishop Dermot O’Mahony and Bishop Éamonn Walsh who were both criticized in the report.
Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin had fired both men but they were later reinstated by the Vatican.
Martin also took part in the mass
Dublin abuse victim Marie Collins said the Archbishop's decision was s “a very poor start” to his visitation and sent out “a very, very bad message."
She was speaking to The Irish Times.
She said “Bishop O’Mahony has never shown any regret, nor has he accepted the Murphy report findings”.
Cardinal O’Malley met with Collins and other Dublin=based abuse victims on Sunday.
She said he “appeared sincere and very open”, she said, but “there’s no way of knowing. I’ve been in that situation many times before.”
Cardinal O’Malley was appointed archbishop of Boston in 2003 and won widespread praise for how he handled the abuse issue there after the controversial role of his predecessor Bernard Cardinal Law.
He said he been sent by the pope as apostolic visitor to Dublin “to verify the effectiveness of the present processes used in responding to cases of abuse.”
Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York is also in Ireland examining the vocations crisis there.
The Murphy report found that Bishop O’Mahony’s handling of allegations e was “particularly bad”.
He was Auxiliary bishop of Dublin from 1975 to 1996.
The Murphy report stated that he was aware of 13 priests against whom there were allegations or suspicions by 1995 but did very little.
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