Breaking News
January 19, 2011
http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/one-in-fours-lewis-vatican-letter-shows-bishops-left-hanging-489976.html
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One in Four director Maeve Lewis has said a letter which revealed Rome had reservations about reporting child sex abuse to the Gardai showed bishops were "left hanging" between having to abide by Irish law, Catholic Church law and guidelines they had agreed themselves.
The head of the abuse-survivors support group said: “In practice it would appear that the Vatican was at all costs avoiding the laicisation of priests and leaving bishops with little authority.
“It certainly created a dilemma for bishops as to whether they should follow the canon law of Rome or the civil law.”
Ms Lewis said an RTE documentary and comments by Bishop Michael Smith showed senior clergy understood the letter to be a directive and instruction that mandatory reporting was contrary to canon law.
“There’s no doubt about that,” she said.
Earlier today, the Vatican disputed allegations that it ordered Irish bishops in 1997 not to report paedophile priests to the authorities.
Federico Lombardi, spokesman for the Holy See, claimed the edict was not intended to give church rules priority over civil law.
“It must be noted that the letter does not in any way suggest that national laws must not be followed,” Rev Lombardi said.
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