What a year-end for the Church in Ireland! Four bishops resigned within the space of six days. Incredible, but true.

On Christmas Eve, Dublin Auxiliary Bishops Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field announced they were offering their resignations to the Pope. The previous day, Bishop James Moriarty of Kildare and Leighlin announced his resignation. Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick was the first to go on December 17.

These resignations came in the wake of the publication on November 26 of the Murphy Commission Report which investigated the handling of some 325 abuse claims in the archdiocese of Dublin during the years 1975-2004. The commission in charge of the investigation found that Church leaders had put the avoidance of scandal and the institution's reputation before the rights of victims.

The Murphy Commission accused none of these bishops of committing any child abuse. They were criticised for lack of thorough investigations or of not taking action that was effective enough and, as a result, children were put at risk and abused. When the report was published, these four bishops were adamant that there was no reason for them to resign. They needed more than a little prodding to go.

One of those who did the prodding was the Archbishop of Dublin, Mgr Diarmuid Martin. Before becoming archbishop, he was, among other things, the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Jus-tice and Peace, and the Per-manent Observer of the Holy See in Geneva, at the United Nations Office and specialised agencies, and at the World Trade Organisation. He was appointed Archbishop of Dublin in 2004.

Mgr Martin's zero tolerance to child abuse was clear from the very beginning of his ministry in Dublin.

His stand earned him criticism by others in the Church, and even public sparring with his predecessor, Cardinal Desmond Connell. When in January 2008, Mgr Martin provided the Murphy Commission with documents relating to claims of child abuse against a representative sample of 46 priests, Mgr Connell threatened legal action to prevent the commission from examining the documents.

The cardinal eventually withdrew his request for the injunction. The move was welcomed by Mgr Martin, who assured victims of abuse as well as priests, of his continued commitment to seeking the truth about the past.

When the Murphy Comm-ission report was published, Mgr Martin said that when he read it he was overcome with anger and disgust, and at one point while reading it, hurled it across the room. In a strongly-worded column published in the Irish Times, he wrote: "The first thing the Church has to do is to move out of any mode of denial. That was the position for far too long and it is still there."

Mgr Martin also encouraged the bishops who were criticised by the Murphy Commission to reconsider their current situations - a statement that was generally interpreted as a veiled invitation for them to resign. He was involved in a public dispute with at least one of the bishops mentioned in the report. Persistent media reports said Mgr Martin was ready to ask the Congregation of Bishops to remove the bishops implicated in the report if they do not resign of their own accord.

Mgr Martin's actions and the resultant resignations are a clear sign that the Church in Ireland is ready to face the demons of its abusive past and is set on the path of zero tolerance towards abuse.

Our bishops, like Mgr Martin, have a similar attitude. Unfortunately, both in Ireland and in Malta, some others of lesser stature are still tied to the old ways of omertà where the institution is prized more than innocent victims.

joseph.borg@um.edu.mt