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	Resignations May Follow Meeting By Paddy Agnew The Irish Times December 8, 2009 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1209/1224260353804.html BISHOPS UNDER FIRE: VATICAN OBSERVERS speculated yesterday that any resignations prompted by the Dublin diocesan report may be delayed until after Friday’s Vatican meeting between Pope Benedict XVI, senior Curia figures, Cardinal Sean Brady, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and papal nuncio in Ireland Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza. With speculation still rife that Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray could be just the first of a number of Irish church resignations, the debate about the Holy See’s reaction, or lack of, to the report continued yesterday. Speaking to The Irish Times , Vatican analyst Giancarlo Zizola argued that however much Irish public opinion might struggle to understand the Vatican’s “silence”, there was nothing surprising or scandalous about it. “When things like this happen in the local church, it is the local church which must assume responsibility . . . There is a clear division of responsibility here – the pope is not the church. He is the Bishop of Rome . . . As regards his universal mission, it seems to me that with regards to questions like this, doctrinal or disciplinary or moral, in particular in relation to the behaviour of priests, he has consistently taken a very hard line, both as cardinal of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as well as Pope,” Mr Zizola said. “In the USA, in Australia, in Poland, in Germany, in statements to the Roman clergy, he has been crystal clear. What do you want him to add now? You can accuse him of being silent on many things, but not on these matters. Look at the statement he made just before his election as pontiff when he spoke of the need to clean up the ‘dirt’ in the church itself.” While Mr Zizola’s opinion might be reflective of an “Italian” way of looking at church affairs, not everyone agreed. In an e-mail, canon law expert Prof Nick Cafardi, professor of law at Duquesne University, Pennsylvania, and author of After Dallas – The US Bishops’ Response to Clergy Sexual Abuse of Children, argues that there can never be too many such condemnations by the pope. “It seems to me that the release of the Dublin report would be the time for the church, not just in Ireland, but internationally, to indicate its great regret for the way the church mishandled decades of child sexual abuse,” he said. “My experience with victims is that such acknowledgements go a long way towards the healing process. I do not think that there can ever be too many expressions of ecclesiastical sorrow on this matter,” he said.
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