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The Vatican formally removed former Galway Bishop Eamon Casey from public office in 2007 after receiving multiple allegations of child sex abuse, a major investigation has revealed.
Bishop Cathy’s Hidden Secrets is a major RTÉ investigation in association with The Mail on Sunday and will air on RTÉ One on Monday night at 9.35pm ET.
The documentary will examine the Catholic Church’s handling of abuse allegations against Bishop Casey and reveal that the Vatican’s order banning him from public office was never disclosed while the bishop was alive.
The documentary will also examine how the Catholic Church received at least five allegations of child sex abuse against Bishop Casey, including a complaint from his niece, Patricia Donovan.
The Diocese of Galway said Bishop Martin Drennan, who oversees restrictions on clergy, reprimanded Bishop Casey after the allegations came to light. According to RTÉ News.
Bishop Casey, who served as bishop until his death in March 2017, was never convicted of any sexual offences and always denied any allegations against him.
However, a new joint investigation by Irish Television and the Mail on Sunday has revealed that the Vatican officially removed him from public office in 2007 over the allegations against him.
Bishop Casey was first accused in 2001 while he was assistant vicar of the dioceses of Arundel and Brighton in England.
The complaint was initially submitted to the Diocese of Limerick in Ireland, which forwarded it to Arundel and Brighton, as well as the Vatican.
However, Arundel and Brighton confirmed that the complaint was inexplicably lost and never reported to the British police. Bishop Casey then continued to serve in the church for four years before returning to Ireland to retire in 2006.
At this time, at least two charges were filed against him. The Attorney General decided not to prosecute Bishop Casey at the time, but the Church’s investigation into the matter continues.
The upcoming documentary will reveal how the Vatican asked Bishop Casey in 2006 “not to exercise his ministry publicly” and “officially” reiterated the request a year later.
“Despite his own and his deputies’ utmost insistence, he was never reinstated,” the documentary recounts.
Father Aidan McGrath said in the documentary that restricting clergy from exercising their pastoral duties was a “serious matter”.
“If this ruling had been made in a formal way, I would interpret it as the Congregation for Bishops making some kind of ruling against Bishop Casey based on the complaints that had been received that he should not exercise his priestly ministry publicly,” Father McGrath said in the documentary.
Fr McGrath added that he believed the Vatican had issued an “official document” stating the pope should have known about the incident.
“It would impose practical restrictions on his ministry and the reasons for it, and this decree would have to be communicated to the pope because it involves a bishop.”
In 1992, Bishop Casey was forced to resign as Bishop of Galway after he fathered a child with an American woman, Anne Murphy.
Ordered by the Vatican to leave Ireland, Bishop Casey later became a missionary in South America before moving to England.
He died in March 2017 at the age of 89.
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