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	Dublin Bishop Says Vatican Silence on Abuse Cases ‘Regrettable’ By Bloomberg Colm Heatley November 27, 2009 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aijpbVzZXvKI Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The Vatican’s failure to cooperate with a panel investigating the sexual abuse of children by priests in Ireland is “very regrettable,” said an auxiliary Roman Catholic bishop of Dublin, Eamonn Walsh. “I’m very disappointed with this failure to respond” to the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation, Walsh said in a telephone interview today. “I am surprised with the attitude, it is totally unnecessary. It doesn’t tally at all with the approach of the Holy Father,” he said, referring to Pope Benedict XVI. Sexual abuse of children in the archdiocese between 1975 and 2004 was routinely covered up by church leaders, the independent commission, appointed in 2006 by the Irish government, said in a report published yesterday. The church’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was set up to spread Catholic teaching, didn’t reply to requests from the commission’s investigators for the release of information it holds about the sexual abuse of children in Dublin, the panel said. A Vatican spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter today when contacted by telephone. Investigators were seeking information on the abuse cases that had been sent to the Vatican agency by the archdiocese itself, so the material wouldn’t have been any more “substantive” than that already available to the panel, according to Walsh. Still, the Vatican should have shown “courtesy and cooperation” with the panel by responding to the request for information, he said. “If it were me, I would apologize,” Walsh said. The cleric, who said he was speaking in a personal capacity, didn’t elaborate on the information. Diplomatic Channels The CDF said the commission should go through diplomatic channels to get the information, an approach the panel said wasn’t “appropriate,” according to the report. The office of the Papal Nuncio, the pope’s diplomatic representative, also declined a request to release any information it holds on the abuse of Dublin’s Catholic children, the panel said. The panel, whose report was described as a catalogue of “evil after evil” by Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, found that church leaders were more concerned with the “avoidance of scandal” than protecting children. In some instances, police reported abuse complaints to the church rather than investigating them because senior police officials regarded “priests as being outside their remit.” The relationship between the church and Irish authorities “contributed to not detecting the prevalence of child abuse,” Walsh said. “There were certain professions that were regarded as having a special standing. That included priests. It should never have been the case,” he said. Ireland’s police commissioner, Fachtna Murphy, said yesterday he was “deeply sorry” that officers failed to protect victims. To contact the reporter on this story: Colm Heatley in Belfast at cheatley@bloomberg.net
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