Irish Priest: Molestation Cover-Up Scandal Goes Right To The Top In Rome

BBC radio host and newspaper columnist Father Brian D'Arcy says that the blame for the Catholic Church's unfolding child molestation cover-up scandal in Dublin goes all the way to Rome.

One of Ireland's best-loved priests, Father Brian D'Arcy, has called for the resignation of clergy who knowingly covered up for child sex-abuse priests. Five bishops who once served in the Dublin Archdiocese when the abuse was taking place and took no action have faced resignation calls over the Murphy Report, which found child sex-abuse rampant. D'Arcy, a well-known media figure and commentator, said the findings of the Murphy Report were "absolutely sickening." And he said that when he served on the Council of Priests in Dublin during the 1990s, he never even "heard a hint" of accusations of abuse. This is not just in the Diocese, this goes right to the top in Rome," he said. "I must have read about a dozen reports from all over the world, from Boston right through to the Ryan Report, the Ferns report, the Dublin report and reports from Australia, and they seem just the same," he told the the "Eamonn Keane Show" on Newstalk Radio. "Yesterday, I just felt physically sick. This morning I have to get up and I try to read it again and I still felt physically sick and I still am physically sick having read the kind of abuse that was perpetrated on innocent children by people who, in a sense were colleagues of mine, because I did spend quite a number of years working within the Dublin Archdiocese in Mount Argus."

The leader of Ireland's Fine Gael political party has called on the nation's bishops to resign. Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick, who is named in the Murphy Report, has refused to step down. Ireland's Cardinal Seán Brady has issued a statement saying he is "deeply sorry and ashamed," and promises that no one in the Catholic Church "is above the law."