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RTÉ investigates the handling of Bishop Casey accusations

The documentary, Bishop Casey's Buried Secrets, was broadcast on RTÉ One and is now available worldwide on the RTÉ Player

Bishop Eamonn Casey(L) leaving a requiem Mass in Dublin. Pic Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

FORMER Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh Eamonn Casey was formally removed from public ministry in 2007 by the Vatican, following allegations which, RTÉ has established, included his niece Patricia Donovan's complaint of child sexual abuse.

That he was allowed to remain in position was partly due to unexplained anomalies that arose in the Diocese of Arundel & Brighton. He was working there as a curate when, according to the RTÉ documentary, the first accuser to level sexual misconduct accusations at him appeared.

An investigation conducted by RTÉ in association with the Irish Mail on Sunday examined the Catholic Church's handling of allegations against Bishop Casey, including charges of child abuse.

According to the investigation, the Diocese of Arundel & Brighton has confirmed that the complaint was inexplicably lost and not reported to the British police. As a result, Bishop Casey remained in active ministry for a further four years.

In early 2006, the Irish Bishops announced that Eamonn Casey was moving back to Ireland to retire.

However, at that stage, the Vatican had received at least two allegations of child sexual abuse against him. The Director of Public Prosecutions in Ireland decided not to go ahead with a case against the bishop. However Church investigations continued.

Former Bishop of Galway Eamon Casey's funeral Mass at Galway Cathedral in 2017 (image Joe Shaughnessy/RollingNews.ie)

AFTER repeated requests for information, the Vatican confirmed to RTÉ that, by 2006, following unspecified "allegations", "Bishop Casey had been requested not to publicly exercise the ministry" and that this was "reiterated formally" a year later.

However, according to the documentary Buried Secrets, the disgraced bishop flouted the ban, and celebrated public Mass in several parishes across the country. The Vatican’s modus operandi of throwing a veil of secrecy over any such accusations, meant that many dioceses in Ireland were unaware of the ban, and unaware of the allegations.

The Vatican restriction was introduced in 2007 and never publicly disclosed until a statement to RTÉ for the documentary, which reveals evidence that Bishop Casey violated the Vatican’s sanctions on several occasions.

The Galway Diocese has stated that the late Bishop Martin Drennan, who was responsible for policing the restrictions, reprimanded Dr Casey when he was made aware of such breaches.

Eamonn Casey consistently denied all the allegations against him.

He was never convicted of any sexual crimes and remained a bishop until his death in March 2017.

However, the Vatican confirmed to RTÉ’s documentary unit, that Bishop Casey was formally removed from ministry in 2007, following allegations which included child sexual abuse.

Prior to his niece coming forward, Bishop Casey’s first accuser, made her allegation in 2001, when he was working as a curate in England Diocese of Arundel & Brighton.

The documentary reveals that the bishop “was never reinstated...in spite of insistence from him and on his behalf" and "regardless of the outcome of the civil procedures".

Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, did not respond to requests for information.

An investigation conducted by RTÉ in association with the Irish Mail on Sunday examined the Catholic Church's handling of allegations against Bishop Casey.

Bishop Eamon Casey was born in Firies, Co. Kerry, and died in a Co. Clare nursing home at the age of 89 in 2017. In 1960, he moved as an emigrant chaplain to Slough. He became well-known while working in London to source adequate housing for thousands of Irish emigrants in the English capital. However, he was arrested for driving with excess alcohol in London.

Back in Ireland his profile increased hugely after hosting Pope John Paul II’s Youth Mass at Ballybrit Racecourse Galway.

In 1992, however, his reputation was left in tatters when it was revealed he had fathered a son to Annie Murphy, a distant relative of his.

But, as the RTÉ documentary points out, many worse accusations were to follow.