Comments of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin on the response of the Holy See to the Government of Ireland

The Vatican response to the Irish government is detailed and
comprehensive.  

It is serious, sober in tone and it addresses broader
questions of Church policy on child safeguarding.

My hope is that it will be understood and received as such and not be
an occasion just for added polemics.

Polemics really do very little
for the protection of children and the support of survivors.

Honest cooperation between Church and State on child safeguarding
issues is particularly important in this country where the Church still
plays an important role in communities.  

The primary role and
responsibility of the State in ensuring the protection of children must,
however, be unambiguously recognised by all.

I was quite struck, however, in reading the section of the Holy See’s
response dealing with the evolution of the policies of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith over the past ten years, that on over twenty occasions these
documents mention cooperation between Church and State and the need for
the Church to respect national laws on the reporting of abuse cases.

I would like to comment on a number of specific issues.

Much emphasis is placed on an intervention by Cardinal Dario
Castrillon Hoyos in 1997.  I would say two things on that 1997 document:

• Effectively, if you look at it, the intervention did not in fact impede the Irish Bishops in unanimously approving the Framework Document, in applying it and in consistently developing that framework into the current positions of the Irish Church.  The current Standards and Guidance documents
  have the full support of Pope Benedict XVI as was stated in his Letter
  to Irish Catholics and are described in the Cloyne Report as “high
  standards which, if fully implemented, would afford proper protection to
  children”.

• It was said that the intervention of Cardinal Castrillon gave some people the opportunity to brush aside the Framework Document.  But the fact is that these same people who were prepared to brush aside the Framework Document, 
  continued to reject the clear norms approved by Pope Benedict when they
  were published.   They were people who regarded only their own views
  and would take no note of study documents, of Framework Documents or
  even of approved papal norms.  These people may be few but the damage
  they caused was huge.

This brings us back to a central point which is implicit in the
Cloyne Reports phrase “if fully implemented”: even the best norms in the
world must be accompanied by an on-going process of independent
monitoring and reviewing of day-to-day practice.   

Within the Catholic
Church this is being undertaken by the National Board for the
Safeguarding of Children. 

Its reviews are underway and will be
published.   

The primary responsibility for monitoring child
safeguarding measures in any dimension of Irish society belongs – I
repeat – with the State.

One of the key points of the Taoiseach’s intervention was the
assertion that “the Holy See attempted to frustrate an enquiry in a
sovereign democratic republic as little as three years ago not three
decades ago”.  

There is no evidence presented in the Murphy Report to
substantiate this, the Holy See could find no evidence and the
Department of An Taoiseach’s office said that the Taoiseach was not
referring to any specific event.  

This merits explanation.

Similarly the Holy See rightly rejects the use of a text of Cardinal
Ratzinger which was made in a totally different context and had no
relevance to the question of public policy.

The document addressed an issue which was discussed over recent years concerning the alleged refusal of the Holy See to grant a recognitio to the 1996 Framework Document.  

The Vatican response shows that the Irish Bishops preferred not to have such recognitio and never initiated the canonical procedures which such a recognitiorequired.

Where do we go from here?  

We are at a crucial moment regarding the
future of child safeguarding in Ireland.  

Reading the Vatican report on
the discussion of mandatory reporting that took place over fifteen years
ago, one of my fears is that the same elements who had reservations
then, and not just in the Church, may well reappear today.

This government is the first government in Irish history to dedicate a
full cabinet ministry to children’s issues.   

This augurs well for the
future.  

We need that future to be framed within a climate of
cooperation on all sides.

The time has long since past to talk about child protection issues
only in the future tense.   

Ireland owes it to survivors and to children
to make this new juncture a real changing point.

 

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