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Catholic World News News Feature

Disgraced Irish bishop ending exile? August 12, 1998

LONDON (CWNews.com) -- Bishop Eamonn Casey, who left his Irish diocese in 1992 after admitting that he had fathered a child during an affair with an American woman, today ended his exile in South America.

Bishop Casey, who had been working as a missionary in Ecuador, arrived in London this morning, and reports in Ireland suggested that he was hoping for a clerical assignment somewhere in England. Sources reported that the Catholic bishops of Ireland would prefer to see Bishop Casey, formerly of Galway, stationed outside of his native land, while Cardinal Basil Hume, the primate of England, would not feel comfortable assigning the disgraced bishop to duties around London.

Bishop Casey left the Galway diocese after Annie Murphy went public with charges that the bishop is the father of her son Peter, who is now 23 years old. The Connecticut woman has complained that the bishop was slow in making child-support payments, but Irish parishioners were outraged to learn that those payments were made from diocesan funds. Bishop Casey has made only occasional, secret trips to Ireland in recent years. He last drew public attention there when he attended the funeral of a relative in 1994.