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	Vatican Criticised over Lack of Support to Bishops By Paul Cullen and Paddy Agnew Irish Times July 14, 2011 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0714/1224300714132.html VATICAN'S ROLE: THE REACTION of the Vatican to a framework document on handling child sexual abuse allegations in 1997 was entirely unhelpful to any bishop who wanted to implement the agreed procedures, the Cloyne report states. Irish bishops sought recognition from Rome for its new rules on handling abuse, as outlined in the document, but it was not forthcoming. The Vatican’s opposition to the document gave comfort to dissenters within the Church, the report states. The Vatican told the Irish bishops the document was “not an official document of the Episcopal Conference but merely a study document”. It contained “procedures and dispositions which appear contrary to canonical discipline and which, if applied, could invalidate the acts of the same Bishops who are attempting to put a stop to these problems. “If such procedures were to be followed by the Bishops and there were cases of eventual hierarchical recourse lodged at the Holy See, the results could be highly embarrassing and detrimental to those same Diocesan authorities,” the congregation told the bishops. The report says the effect of the Vatican’s stance was to strengthen the position of those who dissented from the official Irish church policy. “This response . . . can only be described as unsupportive, especially in relation to report to the civil authorities,” the report says. The commission says four cases where priests were assessed for risk have been reported to Rome; one of these priests has since died and the outcome of the other three cases is not known. Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi issued an emphatic “no comment” when asked about yesterday’s Cloyne report. The spokesman did not rule out making a comment on the report at a later date by which time the Holy See would have had a chance to assess the report’s full impact. In 1997, the then Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Luciano Storero, wrote a letter to the Irish Bishops’ Conference, in which he expressed the concerns of the Congregation for the Clergy about the Irish Church’s 1996 “framework document” on clerical sex abuse. At one point in the letter, the Nuncio observes: “In particular, the situation of ‘mandatory reporting’ gives rise to serious concerns of both a moral and canonical nature.” Asked about this letter earlier this year, Fr Lombardi replied: “It must be pointed out that the letter in no way indicates that the law of the land should not be adhered to. However, the letter also insists on the importance of always respecting canon law in order to avoid situations where guilty parties might find a cause for appeal and therefore obtain the opposite result to that desired”. In relation to the Vatican’s May 2001 instruction, Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela , the Cloyne report quotes a letter in which Msgr Denis O’Callaghan, the vicar-general in the diocese, writes that “the subtext was the need for the procedures in Canon Law which will respect the right of the accused priest”.
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