CHILD ABUSE SCANDAL FORCED 2 MORE IRISH BISHOPS TO QUIT

Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field bowed to weeks of intense criticism and pressure, announcing at services across Dublin that they planned to quit their posts as auxiliaries in the archdiocese.
They are the latest senior clerics to stand down after Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin James Moriarty and Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray resigned over the damning Murphy report.

• It exposed the Catholic hierarchy's shocking inaction and cover-up of paedophile priests over decades.
• Bishops Walsh and Field announced their resignations in a statement as Midnight Mass took place around the country.
• "As we celebrate the Feast of Christmas, the Birth of our Saviour, the Prince of Peace, it is our hope that our action may help to bring the peace and reconciliation of Jesus Christ to the victims/survivors of child sexual abuse," they said.
• The bishops added: "Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have so bravely spoken out and those who continue to suffer in silence."
• Last night in St Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin - who stopped short of publicly calling for resignations but repeatedly pressured senior churchmen who have served in the capital to reflect - described 2009 as a painful year for the Church.
• "The diocese failed its most vulnerable members. The archdiocese failed to recognise what was to be done," the Archbishop said.
• Dublin Labour councillor Aodhan O Riordain attended Midnight Mass in Malahide, north of the city, where the bishops' resignations were announced.

Source: The Independent