Vancouver Sun
July 14, 2011
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Ireland+blasts+disgraceful+Vatican+over+abuse+case/5102100/story.html
[Cover (PDF - 597KB)]
[Introductory Pages (PDF - 574KB)]
[Report by Commission of Investigation into Catholic Diocese of Cloyne (PDF - 1.8MB)]
[Background of the Cloyne Report]
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| Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny (pictured) lashed out Thursday at the "absolutely disgraceful" role of the Roman Catholic Church in a clerical sex abuse scandal, as Dublin called in the Vatican ambassador. |
DUBLIN - Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny lashed out Thursday at the "absolutely disgraceful" role of the Roman Catholic Church in a clerical sex abuse scandal, as Dublin called in the Vatican ambassador.
Kenny's comments came a day after an Irish government probe into the handling of allegations of abuse against 19 clerics in the diocese of Cloyne, southern Ireland, strongly criticized the Vatican's response.
"I think that this is absolutely disgraceful, that the Vatican took the view that it did in respect of something that is as sensitive and as personal with such long-lasting difficulties for persons involved," Kenny told RTE state radio.
Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore meanwhile met papal ambassador Giuseppe Leanza and rebuked him over the Vatican's "unacceptable" behaviour in the case.
The Irish government "considered it unacceptable that the Vatican intervention may have led priests to believe that they could, in conscience, evade their responsibilities", Gilmore said he told the envoy.
These responsibilities "could have protected innocent children from sexual abuse", he told the envoy, adding he expected a response from the Vatican.
Leanza said he would hand the report on the Cloyne scandal to the Vatican.
"Naturally I am very distressed myself that there have again been failures in assuring the protection of children in the Church despite all the good work that has been done," Leanza said.
Leanza has been called in before over cases of sex abuse. In December 2009, then Irish foreign minister Micheal Martin rebuked him after the publication of another report which dealt with the cover-up of clerical sex abuse in Dublin.
Charlie Flanagan, chairman of Kenny's Fine Gael party, said on Thursday that Leanza's position was "untenable" and said he should be expelled if he does not leave voluntarily.
"I want him (Leanza) to indicate he will leave," Flanagan told AFP.
Commenting Thursday on the latest scandal, Kenny said it was necessary that "the law of the land apply irrespective of the location or circumstance of the persons involved".
"This is not about Ireland of long ago, this is about Ireland of contemporary times and it has now got to be dealt with," he added.
The two-year probe into the handling of complaints made between 1996 and 2009 in the largely rural diocese of Cloyne found the response of the authorities to be "inadequate and inappropriate".
It said the 40 victims identified in the investigation had, without exception, felt "that they had been let down by the institutional Church".
Ireland, a predominantly Catholic country, has been rocked by a number of landmark reports on child sex abuse stretching back decades, and on Church leaders' complicity in covering it up.
The report, which runs to 400 pages, said the victims "were all of the opinion that in their meetings with higher Church officials, the sole concern was the protection of the institution rather than the well-being of children.
"Their difficulties were compounded by the fact that their abusers appeared to have suffered no sanctions after their abuse had been revealed."
The report slammed as "entirely unhelpful" the Vatican's response to the child protection procedure drawn up by Irish bishops.
The Vatican's decision to call the procedure a study document "effectively gave individual Irish bishops the freedom to ignore the procedures which they had agreed," the report said.
A number of the priests involved are no longer alive but three have been brought to the courts.
One priest has been convicted, one successfully appealed to stop his trial because of his age, ill-health and the delay since the alleged abuse, and another case is still pending.
The Bishop of Cloyne, John Magee, resigned last year and begged forgiveness from victims. He had been private secretary to three successive popes — Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II.
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