Vatican rejects Irish critics over sex abuse

(AP)

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican on Saturday vigorously rejected claims it sabotaged efforts by Irish bishops to report priests who sexually abused children to police and accused the Irish prime minister of making an "unfounded" attack against the Holy See.

The Vatican issued a 24-page response to the Irish government following Prime Minister Enda Kenny's unprecedented July 20 denunciation of the Vatican's handling of abuse — a speech that was cheered by abuse-weary Irish Catholics but stunned the Vatican and prompted it to recall its ambassador.

Kenny's speech followed the publication of a government-mandated independent report into the diocese of Cloyne, which found that the Vatican had undermined attempts by Irish bishops to protect children from predator priests.

The Cloyne document was the fourth such report to come out in recent years on the colossal scale of priestly sex abuse and cover-up in Ireland. But it was the first to squarely find the Vatican culpable in promoting the culture of secrecy and cover-up that kept abusers in ministry and able to prey on more children.

Kenny said Saturday he would read the statement carefully before commenting. Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore said he planned a reply later Saturday.

The Cloyne report based much of its accusations against the Holy See on a 1997 letter from the Vatican's ambassador to Ireland's to the country's bishops expressing "serious reservations" about their policy requiring bishops to report abusers to police.

A committee of Irish bishops had adopted the policy in 1996 under mounting public pressure as the first cover-ups came to light, a year after a former altar boy became the first abuse victim in Ireland to go public with a lawsuit against the church.

The Cloyne report charged that the Vatican's 1997 letter "effectively gave individual Irish bishops the freedom to ignore the procedures which they had agreed and gave comfort and support to those who ... dissented from the stated official church policy."

In his speech, Kenny said the Cloyne report "excavates the dysfunction, the disconnection, the elitism that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day."

In it's response, the Vatican concurred that taken out of context, the 1997 letter from could give rise to "understandable criticism." But it said the letter had been misunderstood, that Cloyne's conclusions were "inaccurate" and that Kenny's denunciation was "unfounded."

The Vatican response noted that at the time, in the mid-1990s, there was no law in Ireland requiring professionals to report suspected abuse to police and that the issue was a matter of intense debate politically. In fact, Ireland has never had a law explicitly making the failure to report suspected child abuse a crime, but is planning to draft one now in the wake of the Cloyne report.

"Given that the Irish government of the day decided not to legislate on the matter, it is difficult to see how (the Vatican's) letter to the Irish bishops, which was issued subsequently, could possibly be construed as having somehow subverted Irish law or undermined the Irish state in its efforts to deal with the problem in question," the Vatican said.

The response said the Vatican's concerns about mandatory reporting weren't designed to thwart police investigations, but were designed to simply ensure that church law was followed to prevent abusive priests from being able to overturn any church sanctions on appeal.

The Vatican has detailed internal policies for investigating priestly sex abuse, with sanctions that include being dismissed from the clerical state. Such norms however, were rarely if ever followed and abusive priests were shuffled from diocese to diocese just as they were in the United States and elsewhere. And critically, it wasn't until last year that the Vatican ever explicitly told bishops to cooperate with civil authorities in reporting abuse.

The Cloyne report also admonished the Vatican for diminishing the bishops' abuse policy as a mere "study document" in the 1997 letter, implying that it wasn't an official policy that needed to be followed.

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by formrusmcsgt September 4, 2011 4:30 AM EDT: by veronafoamer September 4, 2011 12:12 AM EDT
What proof you got sarge? 1867? devil dork!
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Sorry, it was 1871:

In 1871 Sister Mary MacKillop exposed a pedophile Irish Catholic priest in Australia and was excommunicated.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Sainthood-for-Australian-nun-who-exposed-pedophile-priest-103993693.html

Now shove it sideways, dogma drone.; Reply to this comment

by Matthew10-32-33 September 3, 2011 11:45 PM EDT

Every knee will bend before the Lord Jesus. Please don't talk about HIS church in such a manner. Religion is flawed because mankind is flawed. Angrydadthatneedstoleatnalesson, we are weak but He is strong. We do NOT fear death because Jesus Christ defeated death on the cross. To live is Christ to die is gain.

Matthew 16:17-19
English Standard Version (ESV)
17And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock[a] I will build my church, and the gates of hell[b] shall not prevail against it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed[c] in heaven."

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by formrusmcsgt September 4, 2011 4:31 AM EDT: "I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology." -- Thomas Jefferson


by dan5696 September 6, 2011 12:03 PM EDT: Bottom line is that a lot of small boys were sexually molested by priests. Saying that it is ok because they are flawed is not an adequate answer. Using bibilical versese to defend these horible acts of crulity is not correct. These terrible acts need to be exposed for what they are and not covered up or written off as some minor mistake.


by imnho September 3, 2011 11:44 PM EDT: It appears that the Vatican thinks that if they drag there feet on the subject that there problem will go away and then back to business as usual. Ithink they are making a big mistake. At some point people will stopping giving there leadership the benifit of the doubt and start leaving there church in droves. If the pope is found to be seriously complicted in the coverup it may make the CC history.

There is also a legal limit to what various judicals systems will take and the church is in great danger of hitting that wall. They will find that recovery from hitting a wall at high speed is not guanteeded and very painfull; Reply to this comment

by MagnaCartaUK September 3, 2011 11:16 PM EDT

Officially I'm Church Of England, but the Catholic church in Britain and Ireland eventually did all they could to highlight this problem, when the facts were fully established. It's true that the 'chiefs' probably didn't want to displease their superiors, but that shouldn't reflect on the average Catholic. It was principally the Vatican that chose to 'drag its feet', and lived in denial. Nevertheless, those great many decent 'grass-roots' Catholics, who strive so hard to help as many as possible, should not be made to feel guilty - after all, they've been let down by the aforementioned 'superiors'. A large amount of people have suffered this type of abuse, (sexual and physical too), by the Catholic faith, the Protestant faith, by teachers, care-workers, or anyone else with evil in mind, and short or long term access to vulnerable young people. This isn't about faith, political beliefs, or anything else - it's about disturbed and evil individuals who use organizations as a front to disguise their evil minds and intentions. The Vatican is just one of many who've chosen to ignore the facts to avoid embarrassment. This issue deserves a far more widespread approach - not one lone body.

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by rayosun9 September 5, 2011 9:39 AM EDT: So long as the vast majority of Catholics remain powerless cogs in their church, they can't be held responsible for what the few who DO HAVE POWER in their church do.
BUT, this isn't the "dark ages". Why should adults want to remain in an institution that requires that they be forever treated like children, whose ONLY function will always be to "pay and pray"?
See my http://JesusWouldBeFurious.Org/ site.


by ohbutwait September 3, 2011 9:13 PM EDT: If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. (mark 9).; Reply to this comment


by formrusmcsgt September 3, 2011 6:55 PM EDT: by rednecklogic September 3, 2011 6:18 PM EDT
It is time for the human race to bail out of the religious hocus pocus and deal with the reality of the universe.
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Agreed.

To leave myth , magic, and mysticism in our past would be a tremendous advancement for mankind.

But that would require facing reality rather than believing in pretty promises. Most prefer pretty promises.....; Reply to this comment

by formrusmcsgt September 3, 2011 6:23 PM EDT

"...Prime Minister Enda Kenny's unprecedented July 20 denunciation of the Vatican's handling of abuse — a speech that was cheered by abuse-weary Irish Catholics but stunned the Vatican and prompted it to recall its ambassador."
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The church wants no honest reckoning. Period. It's blame-shift, excuse, and deny. Anything but a complete purging of the guilty in its ranks which is what a "holy" organization would do. It does everything but......

They've been proving so for decades.

It PROTECTS and HIDES but NEVER exposes its own filth. That ONLY occurs when the authorities get involved. What's that called? Oh yeah, conspiracy.

The LAST case I can find of thic cult exposing its own filth was in 1867 in Australia. A nun outed a pedophile priest and SHE was ex-communicated and tossed out on the street penniless.

This evil cult is an abomination - criminals abetting criminals in the "name of God".

And indignant should they be properly identified as such to boot!

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by veronafoamer September 4, 2011 12:12 AM EDT: What proof you got sarge?1867?Check out the government backed John Jay College report.It exposes multiple abuses of power by "men"-nothing in it condemning the whole organization.devil dork!

by rwsmith29456 September 3, 2011 4:42 PM EDT

Rome has barely acknowledged that there is even a problem with child abuse. And you can't tell me they didn't know it all along. Wherever in hierarchy it was covered up, it WAS covered up and the Vatican is responsible for the atmosphere of 'Priests can do no wrong even when they do wrong.'

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by vielmann September 3, 2011 9:50 PM EDT: The problem has been going on for 2 thousand years. Maybe it wouldn't be like this if Catholics wouldn't have left this stuff to just whispers in private during all those years. When the Catholic crusaders committed rape and murder, most people even now justified it as a response to the evil Muslim. I have always believed that this stuff goes on because one hand washes the other. The church looks the other way when members commit terrible crimes, and the parishioners look the other way when priests violate trust.


by bantamei September 3, 2011 4:36 PM EDT: The "church" has so much blood on it's collective hands that it will never be washed off. Study the history of the "church".; Reply to this comment

by Myopinion046 September 3, 2011 3:47 PM EDT

You do know what happens to unrepentant liars don't you, Pope? "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and ************, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." (Rev 21:8, KJV.)

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