I suspect that the most common reaction to the story, in the Irish Times on October 8, was a sigh of weariness rather than a shout of anger. Nothing new to see here. Apart from the role of the Pope.
Religious Affairs correspondent Patsy McGarry reported that Kirby had not told the whole truth: he’d acknowledged knowing of two priest abusers in his diocese when, in fact, he’d known of four.
Kirby confessed that he’d shifted the two abusers, whom he’d admitted being aware of, to new parishes, but insisted there was no evidence either had continued to abuse. But according to McGarry, on the contrary, one of the priests had himself told Kirby that he had gone on to abuse other children.
Information from the Clonfert authorities published in September by the Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children suggested that a total of nine victims had been identified in the diocese. But sources regarded by the Times as reliable maintain that Kirby had been aware of at least 22 cases, including 17 children assaulted by just one of his priests.
While seeming to accept responsibility for at least some of what had happened, Kirby explained that, “I literally thought that… it was a friendship that crossed the boundary line.” He had displayed “gross innocence and naïvety” and now wanted to apologise for “my own previous lack of understanding.”
The most egregious of the Clonfert cases was that of Priest A, jailed for four years in 1994. Kirby visited A in Arbour Hill prison after being approached by a woman who needed to know whether her son had been among his victims. It is claimed that it was in the prison visiting room that A admitted to Kirby that he’d continued to abuse after moving parish and that he had abused 17 children in all.
In the same year that A was sentenced, a scandal erupted over the handling by the authorities in the Republic of a warrant for the extradition to the North of Fr. Brendan Smyth, accused of a series of assaults on four children of a Falls Road family. After a period of high political drama, the Fianna Fáil-Labour government led by Albert Reynolds collapsed – preparing the way for the emergence of Bertie Ahern as FF leader.
The horrendous details of the Smyth case figured on the front pages of newspapers and in news bulletins in Ireland for most of 1994 and attracted prominent coverage across the world. But Kirby is now asking us to accept that his innocence and naivety were such that during this period he had continued to believe that the sexual abuse of children by priests might amount to nothing more than “friendship that crossed the boundary line.”
This will strike most people as wholly implausible – whether it refers to nine, 22 or any other number of victims. But it is exactly in line with the Vatican’s analysis. Bishop Kirby had the Pope’s imprimatur.
On March 12, 2000, Pope John Paul II presided at a magnificent ceremony in St. Peter’s to mark 2,000 years of Christianity by “purifying the memory” of the Church. The main address came from Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, Dean of the College of Cardinals, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and future Pope Benedict XVI. He said: “Let us pray that each one of us, looking to the Lord Jesus, meek and humble of heart, will recognise that even men of the church, in the name of faith and morals, have sometimes used methods not in keeping with the gospel in the solemn duty of defending the truth.”
Lest there be any doubt what that final phrase signified, Ratzinger went on to acknowledge “sins committed in the service of Truth.”
The reference is to the role of the Church as the embodiment of Lord Jesus – “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” 
The mandate from heaven obliterates all stain of sin, washes away in the blood of the lamb every wickedness committed in the service of Truth.
Kirby didn’t see covering up child sex abuse in Clonfert as evil, because nothing done in the interests of ultimate Good can itself be evil.
The Church is impeccable – incapable of sinning – and thus innocent even when guilty.
Again, again, I say unto you, how can it be that although the capo di tutti capi of this criminal conspiracy has allowed it to be known that he will soon be within the same jurisdiction as Clonfert, no arrest warrant has been issued, nor child protection officers sent forth with photographs, machine guns and mace, nor any of his followers placed under parochial house arrest.

Cindy Sheehan and Rosanne Barr have made it onto the ballot paper in California in the presidential election.
Sheehan has been an indefatigable campaigner against war ever since her son, Casey, was killed in Iraq in August 2005. She stands for free healthcare, repeal of the Patriot Act, closure of Guantanamo, legalisation of cannabis, nationalising oil, and same-sex marriage.
Rosanne says that bankers should be given a choice between changing their ways and execution by guillotine.
What an eminently sensible, balanced team.
Hey. There’s hope.