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	Irish Sexual Abuse Needs a Strong Response By David Sharrock The Australian February 17, 2010 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/when-sorry-just-isnt-enough/story-e6frg6ux-1225831122495 VATICAN CITY -- IF it were not so grave an issue, the spectacle of Ireland's most senior clergy dressed in their finery and lining up to defend themselves, one by one, in a seven-minute address to the Pope might have all the comic ingredients of a public school headmaster ticking off to his prefects. But a great deal rides on the outcome of the Vatican meeting, an extraordinarily rare conference called to consider the damage wrought to the Roman Catholic church by hundreds of Irish pedophile priests who assaulted their young charges for decades, seemingly with impunity. The past has finally caught up with them. Last year, two reports came to devastating conclusions about the role of religion in the life of the state. The first found there was systemic sexual, physical and emotional abuse in Catholic-run residential institutes for children. The second said the hierarchy had deliberately covered up the priests' crimes, protecting them from the law, in order to save the church's reputation. The decline of a church that once ruled Ireland's morals with an iron grip was already under way before the sexual abuse scandals began to emerge more than a decade ago. Mass attendance numbers increased thanks to the inflow of Polish workers during the Celtic tiger period but many have left, leaving parishes wrestling with how to offer services in steadily emptying churches with a pool of ageing priests. Ireland remains a culturally Catholic country but the favourite nation of many a pontiff is no longer as quick to stoop to kiss his ring. Practising Irish Catholics expect more from the Pope than mere expressions of regret in a pastoral letter, which he has promised after listening to his Irish bishops. Until now, the Vatican's stance has appeared to suggest that the scandals engulfing Ireland are a domestic matter for the Irish. On Sunday, the Bishop of Clogher, Joseph Duffy, said he did not expect the pastoral letter to be issued soon, such are the complexities. He also made a revealing comment about the level of the Pope's own prior knowledge of the Irish scandals. He said the Pope was "very well clued in on this issue. Even before he became pope, he had access to the documentation and he knew exactly what was in the documentation. "He wasn't living in a fool's paradise." As Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which reviews abuse claims against clergy. For months, there have been calls for the Vatican to open its archives to show its own role in responding to sex abuse cases in Ireland. When the Murphy report into the Dublin diocese was published last year, it emerged that the Papal Nuncio in Ireland, Giuseppe Leanza, had refused to co-operate with the tribunal, hiding behind a cloak of diplomatic protocol and "sovereign immunity". The Vatican's failure to set out a global code of conduct on child protection may have much to do with its reluctance to acknowledge its authority over national churches. This could lead to ruinously expensive claims for damages against the Pope.
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