Letters, Texts & Emails Thursday 3 Dec, 2009
Topic: The Murphy report on clerical sex abuse
Panelists: Patsy McGarry (Religious affairs correspondent, the Irish Times), Mary Raftery (Irish Times and documentary film-maker), Deputy Pat Rabbitte (Labour Party)
Here is a selection of texts and emails received by the programme.
The full programme is available here.
Why should those Bishops be allowed the dignity of resignation? They should be dismissed at once.
Claire
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There are 230 cases of child abuse yearly in the Protestant religion in the USA.
Ed
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These people who have been accused of perpetrating or of being complicit in child abuse should be prosecuted and jailed, not asked to consider their positions.
Dominick
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The Murphy report. NAMA. Tribunal after tribunal, inquiry after inquiry. And no one in this country can be held accountable. We're a society in shambles with no justice for the working class, no equality and no fairness.
Brendan, Waterford
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Part of what led to the cover up was the existence of canon law and the clergy putting it before state law. The papal nuncio should be expelled until the Vatican accepts the primacy of state law.
Joe, Wexford
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Bishop Murray probably has to go but he has not deserved the disproportionate focus he has received. He dealt with any allegations he got appropriately. He just didn't pursue instances where he had no allegations satisfactorily. There is a need for a sacrificial lamb but the quarry is hardly deserving of the hunt!
Eoin Redmond, Limerick
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Bishops and banker must go. They are only interested in themselves and their institutions.
John Delaney, Limerick
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Give Bishop Martin the credit he deserves.
Cath Rice, Kilkenny
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The media need to keep the pressure on this catastrophe. Now is the time for the Irish media to demand whole scale evaluation of bishops and priests. The sheer scale demands and proportionate media and political response.
Edel Ryan, Dundrum
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If the Vatican is a foreign state and will only communicate at a diplomatic level, we should deport back their nest of paedophiles and confiscate all their monies and properties.
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I await with horror the reports from the other dioceses in our country.
M. O'Brien, Thurles
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Why aren't these priests arrested and jailed? It's time for the state to act.
Connie Foley, Macroom
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Is it true that Bishop Murray has a higher degree in morals? My stomach has been in a knot for days now.
Anne, Wexford
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Those people, priests and bishops, cannot have believed in any sort of God to do what they have done. And now their only concern is for their cosy jobs and privileges and we are letting them get away with it. Do we have a government at all? May God forgive us.
Liam O'R, Cork
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I'm glad you referred to the huge percentage of children being abused in homes all over Ireland. Abortion is the worst crime against children as it slaughters them. Anyone who is soft on abortion and speaks on heinous crimes against children is guilty of vile hypocrisy.
Siobhan