He has also been invited to meet up to 60 survivors of child sex abuse by priests in Dublin.
Bishop Drennan is the only one of the serving bishops mentioned in the Murphy report who has not yet offered to resign. Late on Christmas Eve, both Dublin Auxiliary Bishops Éamonn Walsh and Ray Field said they had offered their resignations to Pope Benedict XVI.
They said: “It is our hope that our action may help to bring the peace and reconciliation of Jesus Christ to the victims/survivors of child sexual abuse. We again apologise to them. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have so bravely spoken out and those who continue to suffer in silence.”
Last night Marie Collins, who was abused by “Fr Edmondus” when a child at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, said while she welcomed the offers of resignation from Bishop Éamonn Walsh and Bishop Ray Field, she was “sorry for both men”.
“Bishop Walsh especially, as he was always good to me. But it had to happen. Responsibility had to be taken collectively. We have to put aside the personal due to the fact that he was part of the administration for so long and hadn’t challenged the culture. And it is important for the church that resignations take place,” she said.
She was “disappointed Bishop Drennan has taken the stand he has against resigning”. He was part of the administration of the archdiocese during the period investigated by the Murphy commission, she said.
“If he is not going to resign, then it’s up to the pope and what he decides will be crucial for the future of the church in Ireland. If he leaves him in place it will be a backward step,” she said. “If he removes him then it will be a sign of change, of a new outlook, of a new regime,” she said.
Andrew Madden, who was abused as an altar boy in Cabra by Ivan Payne said the system “which Bishop Drennan was a part of for seven years covered up the sexual abuse of children and caused the sexual abuse of more children”. Bishop Drennan, he said, “states that by the time of his appointment in 1997 child protection structures were already in place”; but the Murphy commission “makes it very clear that the guidelines were in place but were not being implemented”. Change “only began to occur with the appointment of a new head of Child Protection Services, Phil Garland, in 2003,” he said.
He noted that “Bishop Drennan advises against anger and adds insult to injury when he describes our calls for accountability as vengeful. He says he met with 60 priests from the diocese of Galway and seems to enjoy their full support.” He added: “I have today e-mailed the bishop and asked him to formally invite 60 victims of sexual abuse by priests in Dublin to come and meet him in Galway to express their views.”
In his Christmas Eve homily at the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin noted “it has been a painful year. But the church today may well be a better and safer place than was the church of 25 years ago when all looked well but where deep shadows were kept buried.”
Survivors had “turned to a priest sincerely and with idealism and they were met by betrayal of priesthood through abuse or distortion of the priesthood though lack of the care they had a right to receive”.
He added: “There are great priests in this diocese. They too feel betrayed. Many feel that I have not defended them enough and not supported them adequately at this moment. If I have failed them, from this mother church of the archdiocese I ask their pardon. I recognise their dedication and I am sure that the people of the diocese do too.”
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