Deceased Irish bishop called 'scapegoat' for abuse scandal
December 16, 2015
An Irish bishop who had been harshly criticized in a report on the handling of sex-abuse cases in the Dublin diocese was hailed as “a man of great integrity” at his funeral by another retired bishop.
Bishop Dermot O’Mahony, a former auxiliary of the Dublin diocese, was singled out for criticism by the “Murphy Commission,” which reported on the response to abuse complaints in Dublin. Bishop O’Mahony had challenged the commission’s report, and clashed openly with Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin about the charges.
Bishop O’Mahony died on December 10 at the age of 80, after a long battle with heart disease that had forced him to retire in 1996. At his funeral, Bishop Eamonn Walsh said that his brother bishop had been “scapegoated” by the Murphy Commission.
Bishop Walsh, too, had been criticized in the Murphy Commission report. After his own conflicts with Archbishop Martin, Bishop Walsh tendered his resignation in December 2009, but Pope Benedict XVI declined to accept it, and he remains an active auxiliary in Dublin.
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