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	The Bishops Go to Rome Irish Times February 15, 2010 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0215/1224264465829.html IRELAND -- THAT POPE BENEDICT XVI is genuinely horrified and repulsed by clerical sexual abuse is beyond doubt. He has said as much, and apologised convincingly, on a number of occasions. In October 2006 he told the Irish bishops to "take whatever steps are necessary to prevent it occurring again, to ensure that the principles of justice are fully respected and, above all, to bring healing to the victims and to all those affected by these egregious crimes". And he has upheld the Vatican's "zero tolerance" policy which sees priests removed from the ministry for life for one act of sexual abuse on a minor. But if the pontiff's forthcoming pastoral letter to the Irish church limits itself again to such expressions of regret, there will be considerable disappointment among the faithful. The Irish bishops' meeting in December produced a strong statement on the Murphy report, accepting its finding of a damaging "culture that was widespread in the Church". And most Catholics hope the Pope's meetings in Rome with them today and tomorrow, which will inform the thrust of the letter, will also acknowledge the key conclusion of the Murphy report – that there was institutional, systemic cover-up and protection of abusive priests that involved the church as an organisation and senior members of the hierarchy. Accepting resignations of implicated bishops is a crucial part of that acknowledgment. Following their December meeting with the Pope, Cardinal Seán Brady and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin reported that the Holy See sees its response to Murphy extending to "questions concerning the governance of local church leaders with ultimate responsibility for the pastoral care of children". A broad review of governance issues is crucial and should also involve enhancing lay, particularly women's, involvement in the management of the church and appointment of bishops, the consolidation of child protection monitoring and training structures so they are not dependent on individual commitment, and a review of communications strategy. That the meetings in the Apostolic Palace in St Peter's are happening today and tomorrow at all is surely a welcome implicit repudiation of suggestions from Rome that the crisis facing the Irish church is a domestic matter or can be addressed purely on that basis. The Vatican must go further, by opening its archives to show its own role in responding to sex abuse cases in Ireland instead of hiding behind the cloak of diplomatic protocol and "sovereign immunity" as the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza did with the Murphy tribunal. There are concerns that the Vatican's refusal to promulgate a mandatory worldwide code of conduct on child protection stems from fears of legally acknowledging, particularly to US courts, its authority over national churches, implicitly conceding that priests and bishops are actually its agents in a legal sense. Such an acknowledgment could have costly legal consequences. But, lest there be any doubt as a divided Bishops' Conferences goes to Rome today, the position of Archbishop Martin most accurately reflects the views of practising Catholics in the wake of the Murphy Report.
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