ROME
Irish Times
PADDY AGNEW in Rome and MICHAEL O’REGAN
TAOISEACH ENDA Kenny’s encounter with Pope Benedict XVI at Castel Gandolfo on Saturday passed off without any significant exchange between the two men.
Mr Kenny had attended the papal audience as part of a delegation from the Centrist Democrat International (CDI) group, which held a two-day meeting in Rome.
Still tired from his pastoral visit to Lebanon last week, the 85-year-old pontiff kept the audience brief, preferring to pose with the CDI delegation for a group photograph rather than exchange individual greetings with the 100-plus group. Among those who attended the audience along with the Taoiseach were Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras, Albanian prime minister Sali Berisha and the spokesman for the Syrian National Transitional Council, George Sabra.
The Taoiseach had nothing to say to the waiting Irish media, given that he had had no significant exchange with Pope Benedict. On this, his first meeting with the pontiff since his stinging criticism of the Holy See in the Dáil last summer, many had wondered if there would be any further “dialogue” with the pope on the clerical sex abuse issue. However, in the context of a group meeting, that had never seemed a realistic possibility.
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