The Front Pages
Both the Irish Independent and Irish Times have decided to devote their front page headlines to yesterday’s surprising news that Pope Benedict XVI had rejected offers of resignation by auxiliary bishops Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field. The Irish Times featured the headline ‘Archdiocese confirms bishops’ resignation rejected’ while the Independent instead ran with ‘Storm as Pope lets bishops keep jobs’.
The Independent called the decision a ‘severe blow’ to the authority of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin as the Pontiff made his long-awaited decision yesterday. Bishops Walsh and Field had been named in cover-ups of paedophile clerics and Archbishop Martin had called for each to take responsibility for their actions.
The paper also spoke to abuse survivor Andrew Madden, who said that the announcement ‘shows how utterly meaningless the instruction was that Pope Benedict gave to Irish bishops to identify steps that would bring healing to victims of clerical child sexual abuse.’
The Times claims that senior Vatican figures had been worried of a possible ‘domino effect had it emerged other Irish bishops had mishandled allegations of clerical child abuse, and that the pope had opted ‘to differentiate between sins of “omission†and sins of “commissionâ€â€™ in relation to the scandals.
