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	Unholy Row with Rome an Affront to Victims By John Cooney Irish Independent December 2, 2009 http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/unholy-row-with-rome-an-affront-to-victims-1960516.html ALL eyes in a crowded Italian restaurant in the leafy Dublin suburb of Terenure a few weeks ago surveyed the grand entrance of a refined-looking foreign church dignitary and a well-dressed Irishman. Both men were led deferentially by Fabbio, the head waiter, to the best table in the house. Word soon spread that the special dinner guests were none other than the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, and the general secretary of the Department of the Taoiseach Dermot McCarthy. What the Taoiseach's right-hand man and the Pope's representative in Ireland discussed at table was of little concern to the other diners, who were more thrilled that they had sighted in their midst a powerful Vatican official with access to Pope Benedict XVI. However, had the Sicilian-born nuncio stepped into the popular Bellagio restaurant in the turbulent days since the publication last Thursday of the Commission of Investigation into the cover-ups of clerical child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Dublin, he would most probably have received a frosty welcome from the customers. Second only to elusive and unaccountable bishops who elevated the dignity of the Church above the welfare of children, the public ire has turned against the Pope and his curial civil service in Rome. There have been calls for Micheal Martin to summon the nuncio to Iveagh House for a slap of his soutaned wrists. Some even want him expelled from the country. This spontaneous outrage against the Vatican was kindled by the revelation that two letters seeking information from the nuncio were not replied to, and that the "watchdog" Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith also failed to reply to a request for information in 2006. However, the Congregation, formerly the Inquisition, wrote to the Department of Foreign Affairs pointing out that the appropriate protocol was for the commission to liaise with it through diplomatic channels. To defuse an unholy schism between the Holy See and the land of St Patrick, Archbishop Leanza has broken the traditional silence to explain that the Vatican's lack of a response was not a snub -- and he strongly hinted that both the commission and the Government showed a lack of diplomatic savvy in their dealings with Rome. The nuncio observed that the commission should have requested the Irish Government to contact the appropriate authorities in the Vatican; and that at the outset the commission should have directed its request for information through the Government. This suggests that either the Minister for Foreign Affairs or the Irish ambassador to the Holy See should have discussed with the Vatican Secretary of State, the Pope's prime minister, a "norm" for the commission to communicate with the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. This obviously was not done. This raises the question as to whether the commission was so protective of its independent status that it did not entrust its communications to the Government which appointed it! Perhaps the Government displayed a lack of foresight in coming to a prior agreement on the modalities for communication with the Vatican via Foreign Affairs which it should have incorporated in the terms of the commission's mandate. In the event, Judge Murphy was like a tourist demanding that the American Embassy hand over their files to her. In his own defence, the nuncio explained that the first unanswered letter had been sent to his predecessor; and that by the time he took office in April, the commission's report was virtually completed. Did the commission know that the Vatican had a new man in town and did they not talk to him? This smacks of a diplomatic cock-up rather than conspiracy by the Government, the commission, the Vatican and the nunciature. The Irish public, especially the victims of clerical child abuse, deserved better and they need a better explanation than so far offered by the Taoiseach and the Archbishop.
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