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	Call for Leanza to Discuss Report By Elaine Edwards The Irish Times December 3, 2009 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1203/breaking43.htm The papal nuncio Giuseppe Leanza should appear before an Oireachtas committee in order to address the issues raised by the Murphy commission, the Dail has been told. TDs were today making statements to the House on the report of the commission on the handling of allegations of child sex abuse in the Dublin archdiocese. Fine Gael’s spokesman on children, Alan Shatter, said it was “a scandal” the body known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome and the Vatican had relied on diplomatic protocol to avoid providing information to the Murphy commission. The commission wrote to the Congregation in September 2006 looking for information but it received no reply. It further recorded that the Congregation contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs stating the commission had not gone through “appropriate diplomatic channels”. The commission also reported that it wrote to the papal nuncio twice. “He has explained his failure to reply on the basis that he was only appointed to Ireland in April 2008 and had no information he could give to the commission.” Mr Shatter said in the Dail on Tuesday, Taoiseach Brian Cowen had “excused the conduct of both the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the papal nuncio”. “In his convoluted defence of what occurred, the Taoiseach did not adequately explain why the then Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern failed to follow up the letter received by his Department and ensure the Murphy commission received the information and documentation it was seeking,” Mr Shatter said. “The only conclusion that can be reached was that this failure to act was just another example of undue deference being shown to Rome by an Irish Government Minister.” Mr Shatter said protocol, “whether real or imagined”, was given greater priority by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith over the welfare of children. Mr Shatter said the papal nuncio is the Vatican’s ambassador to this State. “I believe he should be invited to a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children to address the issues raised by the Murphy Commission both with him and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and that the Committee should explore what can be done to ensure his and the Vatican’s full co-operation with the Commission in the current investigation into the Diocese of Cloyne and in any future investigations into other dioceses.” The Fine Gael TD said that last year, out of 24,668 reports of children at risk made to the HSE only 15,364 were assessed and 9,304 reports of children at risk were neither assessed nor investigated. He said the Government must “immediately prioritise the legislation required to put our Child Protection Guidelines on a statutory footing”. Labour Party justice spokesman Pat Rabbitte said that notwithstanding the preparatory work done to prepare the public, including the Catholic laity, the actual contents of the Murphy report had “stunned the Irish people”. “The awful uncomfortable reality of child sexual abuse is bad enough; the record of collusion and cover-up and dereliction of duty by Church and State authorities is beyond belief. “These are not acts of omission because of overwork or forgetfulness or lack of knowledge or even neglect; the cover up was deliberate, calculated and pro-active.” Mr Rabbitte said that apart from the “routine dereliction of duty and moral authority”, the failure of bishops and archbishops to take action on allegations of child sex abuse meant that “countless children were abused who could have been protected”. “As public representatives, many members of this House believe that many suicides are due to the experience of victims at the hands of these clerics who were left free to abuse again and again.” Fianna Fail TD Mary O’Rourke said that until the Catholic Church again started to have an affinity with people and their “ordinary, everyday problems” it was “doomed to failure and we are so doomed too". She said it was appalling divorced people could not go to a church of their choosing to have a marriage recognised and that women had been treated by the church as if they were "dirty people". The failure of the Vatican’s representative to cooperate with the Murphy commission was “just not good enough”, Mrs O’Rourke said.
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