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	Irish PM Attacks Vatican Sabotage By Ruth Gledhill The Australian July 22, 2011 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/irish-pm-attacks-vatican-sabotage/story-e6frg6so-1226099296001 RELATIONS between Ireland, traditionally one of the most Catholic countries in the world, and the Vatican reached an unprecedented low yesterday after a row over the latest report on pedophile priests in the Republic. Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny launched a damning attack on the Holy See in parliament, accusing the Catholic hierarchy in Rome of putting the interests of the church ahead of those of child rape victims. He warned that the relationship between Ireland and the church would never be the same again. The government and opposition parties unanimously backed a motion accusing the Vatican of sabotaging the Irish bishops' 1996 decision to begin reporting suspected cases of child abuse to police. "This is not Rome. This is the Republic of Ireland 2011, a republic of laws," Mr Kenny said. He referred to last week's Cloyne report, the fourth investigation in six years into child abuse by the clergy, which revealed what critics of the church in Ireland regard as a catastrophic failure to follow church rules on reporting abusers who were active until as recently as three years ago. Mr Kenny told parliament it had exposed a dysfunctional, elite hierarchy determined to frustrate investigations. In a long personal statement, the Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, suggested the church had done nothing worse than the Irish state and pointed out that rigorous child protection rules and mandatory reporting were not enshrined in law at the time. He said the severity of the criticisms of the Vatican were "curious" and "demonstrate little awareness of what the Holy See has actually done over the years to help effectively address the problem". Since publication of the Cloyne report, which revealed that nine out of 15 complaints against priests between 1996 and 2009 were not reported, the Irish government has summoned the Vatican's ambassador, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, to demand an official response. In the first bill of its kind anywhere in the world, the Irish government is threatening the sanctity of the "seal of the confessional", with priests who refuse to disclose details of sex abuse crimes revealed in the confessional or elsewhere facing prison sentences of up to five years. The Cloyne report included details of a letter from the Holy See in 1997 instructing Irish bishops to handle child abuse cases according to canon law and warned against their own child protection policy introduced the year before, particularly its emphasis on the need to report all suspected crimes to police. Mr Kenny said: "For the first time in Ireland, a report into child sexual abuse exposes an attempt by the Holy See to frustrate an inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic as little as three years ago, not three decades ago. And in doing so, the Cloyne report excavates the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism, the narcissism that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day. "The rape and torture of children were downplayed or 'managed' to uphold instead the primacy of the institution, its power, standing and 'reputation'." The row marks the first time politicians in Ireland have attacked the Vatican rather than their own Catholic hierarchy over the pedophile priest scandals.
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