Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said he did not regret
his unprecedented attack on the Vatican after it rejected his claims
that it tried to frustrate an inquiry into clerical child abuse.
In
its formal response to the Government in the wake of the latest church
abuse scandal, the Holy See said that it in no way hampered or
interfered with the inquiry into abuse cover-ups in the Cloyne diocese.
Mr
Kenny launched a blistering attack on the Vatican in the Dáil, claiming
that the probe exposed a dysfunctional, elite hierarchy determined to
frustrate investigations.
But the Holy See said the Cloyne Report did not back up the Taoiseach’s allegations.
The
Vatican said: “In particular, the accusation that the Holy See
attempted ’to frustrate an inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic
as little as three years ago, not three decades ago’, which Mr Kenny
made no attempt to substantiate, is unfounded.”
The Cloyne Report, published in July, was the fourth major report in six years into the church’s cover-ups of clerical abuse.
The
Co Cork diocese was the latest arm of the church to be exposed, with
former bishop John Magee, a Vatican aide to three Popes, singled out for
misleading investigators and “dangerous” failures on child protection.
His resignation was accepted by Pope Benedict last year.
Opening
a special Dáil debate a week after the report’s publication, Mr Kenny
hit out at the Vatican and accused the church of downplaying the rape
and torture of Irish children by clerical sex abusers.
Mr Kenny said he did not regret making the speech.
“I
made my statement to the Dáil, and obviously the question being asked
by the Tánaiste on behalf of the Government was to have the Vatican
respond in respect of a statutory commission of inquiry arising from the
Cloyne situation,” the Taoiseach said.
But Fr Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See’s press office, rejected Mr Kenny’s Dáil comments.
“We do not understand what was in the mind of the Prime Minister,” he said.
The Vatican claimed it never hampered or interfered in the inquiry into child sexual abuse cases in the diocese.
“Furthermore,
at no stage did it seek to interfere with Irish civil law or impede the
civil authority in the exercise of its duties,” the statement said.
The
25-page Vatican statement was issued after Foreign Affairs Minister
Eamon Gilmore demanded answers from the Holy See on claims that it
allowed priests to ignore mandatory reporting guidelines on suspected
child abusers within the church.
It said the Holy See was sorry
and ashamed for the “terrible sufferings which the victims of abuse and
their families have had to endure”.
“The Holy See is deeply
concerned at the findings of the commission of inquiry concerning grave
failures in the ecclesiastical governance of the Diocese of Cloyne and
the mishandling of allegations of abuse.”
The Vatican became
embroiled in the latest Irish church scandal after revelations about a
1997 letter, from the then papal nuncio to Ireland Archbishop Luciano
Storero to Irish bishops, a year after reporting guidelines were
enforced to enhance child protection.
The correspondence stated
that the bishops’ policy was “merely a discussion document” and that the
Vatican had serious moral and canon reservations about mandatory
reporting of clerical abuse.
But the Vatican says that taken out
of context, the comments in the letter to Irish bishops “could be open
to misinterpretation, giving rise to understandable criticism.”
It
said the description of the bishops’ policy as a study document was not
a dismissal of the serious efforts being undertaken to address the
child abuse problem.
It said senior church figures wanted to
ensure that “nothing contained in it would give rise to difficulties
should appeals be lodged to the Holy See”.
The Holy See also denied that bishops sought recognition from Rome for its so-called framework document.
“In
the light of the findings of the Cloyne Report, the basic difficulty
with regard to child protection in that diocese seems to have arisen not
from the lack of recognition for the guidelines of the framework
document but from the fact that, while the diocese claimed to follow the
guidelines, in reality it did not,” the Vatican said.
The Holy
See said the response of the Congregation for the Clergy, through
Archbishop Storero, was not a rejection of the framework document, but
an invitation to bishops to re-examine it carefully.
But Mr Gilmore branded the arguments put forward by the Vatican legalistic and technical.
“The
Government’s concern was never about the status of the church documents
but rather about the welfare of children,” Mr Gilmore said.
“In
relation to the Framework Document, I remain of the view that the 1997
letter from the then nuncio provided a pretext for some to avoid full
co-operation with the Irish civil authorities.
“The sexual abuse
of children is such a heinous and reprehensible crime that issues about
the precise status of documents should not be allowed to obscure the
obligation of people in positions of responsibility to deal promptly
with such abuse and report it.”
The Vatican also said the
Congregation was not forbidding mandatory reporting, “or in any way
encouraging individuals, including clerics, not to cooperate with the
Irish civil authorities, let alone disobey Irish civil law”.
The
Vatican said that as the Irish government had not made mandatory
reporting of suspected abuse cases law at that time, it was difficult
how concerns raised in Archbishop’s Storero’s letter could be construed
as having subverted Irish law.
The Government has now committed
to tough new child protection measures in the wake of Cloyne, including
making it an offence to withhold information about crimes against
children and introducing new vetting to allow “soft information”
transfers.
The Holy See said while it cannot comment on the proposed legislation, it welcomes and supports attempts to protect children.
But
it signalled there could be difficulties with plans to ensure
allegations made in the confessional are reported to civil authorities.
Clerical
abuse survivors said the Vatican’s response was another attempt to
absolve itself of responsibility for abuse cover-ups.
But
all-Ireland primate Cardinal Sean Brady said it conveyed the Holy See’s
profound abhorrence for the abuse, and sorrow and shame for victims’
sufferings.
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