THE reputation of the former Bishop of Cloyne was "utterly destroyed" by the report into clerical sex abuse in his diocese.
The
report follows a two-year investigation by Circuit Court Judge Yvonne
Murphy into allegations of child abuse against 19 clerics in the
diocese between 1996 and 2009.
Monsignor O'Callaghan,
like Bishop Magee, was never accused of child abuse, but criticised
for failing to prevent it or not diligently pursing allegations of it.
The report shows a "breathtaking level of indifference" to child protection by the church and State.
And it reveals that lessons were not learned by the Ferns report.
"The
story has not changed, red flags were ignored by both the church and
the state authorities," said one legal source who added that the
report demonstrated a major clash between canon and civil law.
"The Government still cannot reach into the jurisdiction of the church."
Response
One
minister, who did not want to be identified, said the behaviour of the
bishop and the administration of his diocese was "as bad as anything
in any other report into clerical child abuse".
The
Government's immediate response to the report will be the publication,
on Friday, of the new 'Children's First Guidelines'.
The
guidelines will be placed on a statutory footing in a bid to restore
confidence in the State's handling of sexual abuse of children by
clerics.
The latest inquiry into the diocese of Cloyne was
ordered after the church's own abuse watchdog found that Bishop Magee
took minimal action when two of his priests were accused of abusing
children.
The National Board for Safeguarding Children in
the Catholic Church also said that the little action that Bishop Magee
took was inappropriately delayed.
Bishop Magee apologised to victims when that inquiry's report were first published in December 2008.
Another audit commissioned by the Department of Health
and published in January 2009 reported that the bishop failed to tell
the authorities that one of his priests was suspected of child abuse.
The
administration of the diocese was taken over by the Archbishop of
Cashel and Emly, Dermot Clifford, before Bishop Magee formally
resigned.
He has not been seen for weeks at the church
property in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, to which he retired last year.
The
house, just metres from the town's CBS secondary school, has
dominating views over the busy market town.
"The last I heard was that he was supposed to be overseas. But you don't really see him around much," said a local.
Sources
close to the church indicated that Bishop Magee, a secretary to three
Popes before his appointment as Bishop of Cloyne in 1987, was thought
to be out of Ireland.
One
entire chapter has been edited out of the report on the directions of
the High Court because of ongoing criminal proceedings against a
single cleric.