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	Anger As Papal Nuncio Refuses to Testify on Child Abuse Sydney Morning Herald February 17, 2010 http://www.smh.com.au/world/anger-as-papal-nuncio-refuses-to-testify-on-child-abuse-20100216-o8yz.html DUBLIN -- Irish politicians have denounced the refusal of the Pope's diplomat in Ireland to testify to a parliamentary panel probing the level of Catholic Church co-operation with investigations into the church's cover-up of child abuse. News of the refusal came as the Vatican described the child sex abuse scandal in Ireland as "humiliating" for the church and 24 Irish bishops began unprecedented talks with the Pope. The papal nuncio to Ireland, Cardinal Giuseppi Leanza, told MPs in a letter published on Monday that he would not answer questions from the parliament's foreign affairs committee. Cardinal Leanza has faced heavy criticism in Ireland for ignoring letters from two state-ordered investigations into how the church for decades suppressed reports of child abuse by parish priests and in Catholic-run residences for poor children. The investigators said the cardinal did not reply to letters seeking the Vatican's assistance. An Irish MP, Alan Shatter, said it was "not only deeply regrettable but incomprehensible" that Cardinal Leanza would not explain the Vatican's lack of co-operation with Irish investigations, given "it is acknowledged in Rome that members of the clergy in Ireland are guilty of abominable sexual abuse of children". Cardinal Leanza is in Rome participating in a Vatican summit of Ireland's 24 bishops. The meeting, on Monday and yesterday, was expected to advance a planned papal letter to the people of Ireland apologising for church failures to protect thousands of children from abuse. Irish campaigners for abuse victims are demanding much more, including a mass resignation of any bishops who failed to tell police about reports of paedophile priests. They also demand that the Pope accept in full the findings of the Irish investigations, which some church officials in Ireland have criticised as unfair. In Rome, the Vatican's Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, told the Irish bishops that the priests involved in the abuses had committed "particularly execrable acts" and the disclosures of systemic paedophilia presented a "hard and humiliating challenge". He said God's mercy could "pull one out of the deepest abyss" but "only if the sinner recognises his blame in full truth". The crisis erupted in November with the publication of an Irish government investigation detailing the crimes and disclosing that church leaders in Dublin had spent decades protecting child-abusing priests from the law. The report found the church had "obsessively" hidden child abuse from 1975 to 2004. Archbishop Sean Brady, the Primate of all Ireland, said the meetings were part of a "journey of repentance, reconciliation and renewal" for the Irish church. The bishops would each speak to the pontiff about their knowledge of decades-long sexual, psychological and physical abuse of minors by priests and other clergy in Catholic orphanages, workhouses and other institutions. One bishop said the talks would be "frank". Four of the five bishops who were criticised for failing to act on reports of paedophilia resigned, but the fifth, Martin Drennan of Galway, insisted that he did nothing to endanger children and rejected calls that he step down. Bishop James Moriarty of Kildare and Leighlin, one of the four who tendered their resignation, was at the talks. He said the meetings had been "very carefully" prepared and were "but one step on a very long road".
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