THE Catholic diocese of Limerick has said it continues to “respect” a move by the diocese of Galway, which has reiterated it requires “time and peace” to decide about the interment of the late alleged paedophile Limerick priest and Bishop of Galway, Eamonn Casey.
‘Bishop Casey’s Buried Secrets’, an RTÉ Documentary, researched, produced, and presented by former Limerick journalist Anne Sheridan, which aired last July, revealed that Casey was removed from ministry by the Vatican before 2006 and that the ban was reiterated to him in 2007 after Rome received multiple allegations of sexual abuse.
Shocking claims unearthed in the television documentary, which highlighted a total of eight allegations of child and adult sexual assaults and child safeguarding concerns against Casey, included that Casey began abusing and raping his niece Patricia O’Donovan from when she was just five years old.
Last July, as pressure mounted on the Galway diocese to remove Casey’s body from the Galway Cathedral crypt, the current Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh, and Kilfenora, Michael Duignan, stated: “The interment of Bishop Casey in the Cathedral crypt now requires a period of careful consideration and consultation, which has already begun. Time and space are required to adequately and appropriately bring this undertaking to completion.”
The Limerick Post asked the Limerick diocese if the Bishop of Limerick, Dr Brendan Leahy, who has access to documents relating to complaints against Casey in the Limerick diocese, had as yet communicated with Galway or the Vatican or any other about Limerick potentially receiving Casey’s remains, and, if so, what stage were these talks at.
The Limerick Diocese did not specifically answer these questions, but a spokesman for the diocese reiterated that “the Diocese of Galway has stated that it is in a period of careful consideration and consultation in relation to the interment of Bishop Casey and we respect that process”.
The Galway diocese also did not answer the same questions put to it by the Limerick Post. In reply, a Galway diocesan spokesman provided a statement that it had previously issued on July 27 last, explaining that “the diocese has nothing further to add at this time”.
Casey (89), who admitted fathering a son after having an affair with his cousin Annie Murphy in the 1990s, died in 2017. He had always denied all and any allegations of sexual abuse put to him prior to his death.
