The former Bishop of Cloyne, John Magee, has issued a statement in which
he sincerely apologises to all those who were abused by priests in the
diocese.
Bishop Magee said that he now realised he should have taken a much firmer role in ensuring church procedures on reporting abuse were implemented.
The 74-year-old said he accepts the view that the primary responsibility for ther failure to follow correct procedures lies with him.
The statement from Bishop John Magee makes no reference to a complaint of inappropriate behaviour made directly against him.
The judge-led investigation into his inadequate attempts to deal with abusive clerics launched a withering attack on the former Bishop of Cloyne in Co Cork for attempting to blame subordinates for his failures.
“It is a remarkable fact that Bishop Magee took little or no active interest in the management of clerical child sexual abuse cases until 2008,” the 400-page report found.
The inquiry – headed by Judge Yvonne Murphy, who in 2009 exposed a damning catalogue of failures in the Dublin Archdiocese – found the Catholic hierarchy in Cloyne was resisting church policy 12 years after a framework document on child protection was adopted in 1996.
John Magee stood down from day-to-day duties in March 2009 and resigned a year later.
The inquiry found Bishop Magee ignored the report of an indepedent expert drafted in to Cloyne in 2003, who warned the diocese was not following rules on child sex abuse allegations.
Bishop Magee initially told the commission he did not see the report until five years after it was completed, but later said he was mistaken and did see it at the time it was produced in 2004.
The commission said: “Clearly, he did not read it then or, if he did, he did not take its message on board or he chose to ignore it.”
The report notes the bishop told the children’s minister in 2005 that Church guidelines were fully in place and being fully complied with.
The commission said if he had read the 2004 internal report or checked with his second-in-command Monsignor Denis O’Callaghan, he would have known this was not the case.
Later, in January 2007, he told the Health Service Exectuive (HSE) the diocese reported any complaints to the HSE or the gardaí.
“This was not true,” the commission states.
The commission said the failure by both Bishop Magee and Monsignor O’Callaghan to read and take heed of the internal 2004 report was “quite extraordinary”.
The report found that in a number of cases where Church authorities were made aware of alleged abuse, they made no attempt to find out if there were other suspected victims and did not report many incidents to the gardai.
The report states the greatest failure in the scandal was that Cloyne authorities did not report all allegations to the gardai.
The commission dismissed a defence by Bishop Magee that he was shocked that Church guidelines were not adhered to and his insistence that he fully backed them.
“It became clear during the course of this investigation that Bishop Magee had, to a certain extent, detached himself from the day-to-day management of child sexual abuse cases,” the report states.
“Bishop Magee was the head of the diocese and cannot avoid his reponsibility by blaming subordinates whom he wholly failed to supervise.”
Bishop Magee said that he now realised he should have taken a much firmer role in ensuring church procedures on reporting abuse were implemented.
The 74-year-old said he accepts the view that the primary responsibility for ther failure to follow correct procedures lies with him.
The statement from Bishop John Magee makes no reference to a complaint of inappropriate behaviour made directly against him.
The judge-led investigation into his inadequate attempts to deal with abusive clerics launched a withering attack on the former Bishop of Cloyne in Co Cork for attempting to blame subordinates for his failures.
“It is a remarkable fact that Bishop Magee took little or no active interest in the management of clerical child sexual abuse cases until 2008,” the 400-page report found.
The inquiry – headed by Judge Yvonne Murphy, who in 2009 exposed a damning catalogue of failures in the Dublin Archdiocese – found the Catholic hierarchy in Cloyne was resisting church policy 12 years after a framework document on child protection was adopted in 1996.
John Magee stood down from day-to-day duties in March 2009 and resigned a year later.
The inquiry found Bishop Magee ignored the report of an indepedent expert drafted in to Cloyne in 2003, who warned the diocese was not following rules on child sex abuse allegations.
Bishop Magee initially told the commission he did not see the report until five years after it was completed, but later said he was mistaken and did see it at the time it was produced in 2004.
The commission said: “Clearly, he did not read it then or, if he did, he did not take its message on board or he chose to ignore it.”
The report notes the bishop told the children’s minister in 2005 that Church guidelines were fully in place and being fully complied with.
The commission said if he had read the 2004 internal report or checked with his second-in-command Monsignor Denis O’Callaghan, he would have known this was not the case.
Later, in January 2007, he told the Health Service Exectuive (HSE) the diocese reported any complaints to the HSE or the gardaí.
“This was not true,” the commission states.
The commission said the failure by both Bishop Magee and Monsignor O’Callaghan to read and take heed of the internal 2004 report was “quite extraordinary”.
The report found that in a number of cases where Church authorities were made aware of alleged abuse, they made no attempt to find out if there were other suspected victims and did not report many incidents to the gardai.
The report states the greatest failure in the scandal was that Cloyne authorities did not report all allegations to the gardai.
The commission dismissed a defence by Bishop Magee that he was shocked that Church guidelines were not adhered to and his insistence that he fully backed them.
“It became clear during the course of this investigation that Bishop Magee had, to a certain extent, detached himself from the day-to-day management of child sexual abuse cases,” the report states.
“Bishop Magee was the head of the diocese and cannot avoid his reponsibility by blaming subordinates whom he wholly failed to supervise.”