First Bishops, Now a Cardinal to Resign?

Martin Drennan, the fifth Irish bishop whose resignation has been called for, is now calling for cardinal Desmond Connell to resign instead.

In a new twist to the incredible discovery of widespread sexual abuse perpetrated by priests of the Catholic Church, the bishop yet to resign - as reported in Digital Journal last week - still denies any wrongdoing and squarely drops all responsibility into the lap of his superior, Cardinal Desmond Connell. Following the Murphy report and talks with the pope, four other bishops had resigned during December 2009, with public figures and newspapers calling for bishop Drennan's resignation as well. However, after dodging the media for a few days, the bishop has now spoken and clearly states - as the Irish Independent shows - that he washes his hands in innocence. First of all, so he says, it was cardinal Connell alone who made all major decisions about how to handle the paedophile priests in the Dublin archdiocese. Drennan's other point is the fact that he himself had never been responsible to handle the case of the notorious paedophile cleric, Fr. Noel Reynolds, who admitted to sexually abusing more than 100 children. For now, the story is not yet going away and it may keep on haunting the Catholic Church. It also puts extra pressure on 83-year-old Cardinal Connell to affirm the scandal, to talk about his role in it, or to appropriate blame where it actually belongs - be it himself or someone perhaps even higher up in the hierarchy.