NORTHAMPTON DIOCESE – ABUSE REPORT COCK UP!

RICHARD PURCELL AND MONASTERIES UPDATE

Dear Bishop Alphonsus,

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Enclosed for your consideration is the e-mail that I sent last evening to the Abbot General, Dom Eamon Fitzgerald and Dom Michael Ryan, the Abbot and Ordinary of Bolton Abbey. The latter the Father Immediate of Mount Melleray Abbey. It is extraordinary to consider that Dom Ryan appeared to be unaware of the allegations that have been made against Dom Richard Purcell.​

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While, I appreciate you have no jurisdiction in the internal governance of Mount Melleray Abbey, however, you can preventively suspend the priestly faculties of Fr. Purcell, OCSO, in the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore. Are you now going to render a Decree suspending same? If not – why not?​

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If Fr. Purcell was without blemish, he would relish and indeed welcome the opportunity to vindicate his good name and refute the allegations that have been made; his on-going silence is surprising. Both H.E. Cardinal Pell, who needs no introduction and Bishop Zubik, the Bishop of Pittsburgh, both voluntarily stepped aside in order to facilitate independent investigations into allegations that had been made them — both men emerged completely exonerated with their reputations conspicuously enhanced. Why, then, does Fr. Purcell, not embrace a similar opportunity to vindicate his good name, and prove the allegations to be baseless? That, I respectfully submit is a legitimate question.​

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Yesterday, the electronic copy of the letter you received from our canon lawyer addressed was sent to Dom Eamon Fitzgerald from the Vatican post office. It has the following tracking number: RR 080 174 087 VA. You may wish to discuss the contents of this letter with the Abbot General.

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Intimately connected with the above is the involvement of Abbot Brendan Coffey OSB, of Glenstal Abbey. His behaviour raises serious questions and evidences behaviour that is wholly unacceptable for an Irish Benedictine Abbot. This afternoon, following the recommendation of Dr. Caroline Cullen, Area Manager Mid West Area for Tusla, among others, I shall be bringing the behaviour of Abbot Brendan Coffey, OSB in this matter to the attention of the Minister for Education, Norma Foley; she is also my constituency, TD.​

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I, do, because, the e-mails from Abbot Brendan clearly evidence that he was actively seeking a statement of exculpation for Richard Purcell. Why was Abbot Brendan seeking such a statement for a monk that did not have stability at Glenstal Abbey and belongs to another monastic obligation? Was he facilitating a cover-up? Is this a pattern of behaviour that is acceptable for an abbot of a monastery that oversees a school? It is one that I am happy to have officials from the Department of Education to make an independent assessment.​ This evening, shall we see on the Cistercian website a statement that Abbot Purcell has stepped aside and a new interim superior has been appointed? That is what is required, and it is surprising the Cistercians are so reluctant to do the right thing — why is that? That, too, is also a legitimate question.

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As ever, I am copying this e-mail to the Abbot General, his silence is deafening; the Apostolic Nuncio, so he has a complete picture on behalf of the Holy See; Dom Michael Ryan, the Father Immediate of Mount Melleray Abbey, and Pat Buckley, who will probably publish this correspondence on his Blog, unless, I hear back from this office with a request not to publish same.​

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Sincerely,​

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Robert Hourigan​

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From: Robert Hourigan
Sent: 16 November 2020 18:14
To:ocsoroma@gmail.com <ocsoroma@gmail.com>; efitz.45@gmail.com <efitz.45@gmail.com>
Cc:boltonabbeymoone@gmail.com <boltonabbeymoone@gmail.com>
Subject: Mount Melleray Abbey / Father Immediate.

Dom Eamon,​ ​

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According to the website of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, since September 28, 2020, Dom Michael Ryan, the Abbot and Ordinary of Bolton Abbey, Moone, Kildare, is now the Father Immediate of Mount Melleray Abbey. This evening, I rang Dom Ryan in his capacity as Father Immediate to seek his immediate and direct intervention in Mount Melleray Abbey in light of the accusations that have been made against Dom Richard Purcell.​ ​

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To my great surprise, Dom Michael Ryan “appeared” to know nothing about the accusations. In fact, I think he was quite shocked to receive my call, but not as shocked as I was to learn that he appeared oblivious to same.​ ​

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Dom Ryan, further “appeared” to be unaware that you, Dom Eamon, have been aware of these allegations for some time [over two (2) months]. I reminded him that you have been repeatedly contacted about this matter and your silence and failure to respond to correspondence and/or act does not inspire confidence. I apprised him of e-mails had been sent to you as the Abbot General, which he did not consider acceptable; I further apprised him that a letter has also been sent to the Cistercian Generalate.​

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I appreciate a call that highlights allegations against any Cistercian Abbot is an unpleasant surprise. Thus, Dom Ryan was rightly guarded; but he was courteous. In fact, I entirely appreciate and have sympathy with his position, despite the fact that he referred to me on more than one occasion as just a voice at the end of the phone; in the same manner, he, too, was a just a voice at the other end of the phone.​ ​

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I respectfully part company with the observation of Dom Michael Ryan that e-mail in the contemporary age is not an acceptable form of communication. The Cistercians are more than capable of utilising their website to apprise the world of developments within the Congregation. Moreover, on the website of the Order: the e-mail address: “ocsoroma@gmail.com” is proffered as a means of contacting the Order, so the observations of Dom Ryan on this matter, I respectfully submit on this matter have the credibility of a forced syllogism.​ ​

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In fact, your silence, Dom Eamon, suggests an on-going, sustained, and deliberate cover-up. This is even more the case when you consider that Abbot Brendan Coffey of Glenstal Abbey was seeking a statement that was exculpatory of Dom Richard Purcell. All this can be evidenced with e-mails from Dom Brendan e-mail address: “brendan@glenstal.org”.​​

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Dom Ryan suggested that if an allegation had been made that the appropriate people to contact were the Gardai. However, the allegations made against Dom Purcell are NOT criminal. They pertain to his repeated contraventions of his monastic vows. Dom Ryan appeared to be oblivious to the fact that it is asserted that Dom Richard Purcell when he was the Abbot of Mount St. Joseph Abbey in the monastery guesthouse had consensual anal sex with an ex-priest of the Diocese of Killaloe (the then Fr. Neil Dargan), and that Richard Purcell is well-known on the Irish gay scene.​ ​

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Regardless of who has knowledge of these allegations, by the present, Dom Michael Ryan as the Father Immediate can no longer deny any knowledge the allegations that have been made against Dom Richard Purcell, the current Abbot of Mount Melleray Abbey. ​

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Therefore, it is incumbent for proper procedures to be followed, forthwith. Thus, it would behove Dom Ryan as the Father Immediate to directly intervene in the situation at Mount Melleray Abbey by making an immediate public denial of these allegations and/or by appointing a superior ad nutum until a canonical investigation into the allegations made against Richard Purcell can be convened, and a thorough investigation undertaken (Canon 1717) with the findings made public.​ ​

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The situation at Mount Melleray is not going to ameliorate by inaction or with the passing of time; so, it is in the interests of all concerned particularly for the greater good of Mount Melleray Abbey for this to be actioned, now.​ ​

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Sincerely,​ ​

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Robert Hourigan​ ​