By Damien Gayle
Daily Mail UNITED KINGDOM
September 3, 2011
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2033350/Vatican-rejects-claims-tried-cover-child-abuse-priests-Ireland.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
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| Stinging criticism: Irish premier Enda Kenny denounced the church in the Irish Parliament in July |
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| \'Misinterpretation\': A general view of St. Peter\'s Square, Vatican City. The Vatican says comments in a letter to Irish bishops were taken out of context |
The Vatican has denied claims by Irish premier Enda Kelly that it tried to frustrate an inquiry into child abuse by priests.
In an unprecedented attack in the Dail parliament in July, Mr Kenny had accused the Vatican of downplaying the rape and torture of Irish children by clerics.
He claimed the Cloyne inquiry into clerical abuse cover-ups exposed a dysfunctional, elite hierarchy determined to frustrate investigations.
He furiously denounced what he called 'the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism - and the narcissism - that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day.'
The astonishing attack was the first time that Ireland's Parliament has publicly castigated the Vatican instead of local church leaders during the country's 17 years of paedophile-priest scandals.
In its first formal response in the wake of the damning findings at Cloyne, the Holy See rejected allegations it tried to frustrate the inquiry.
'In particular, the accusation that the Holy See attempted "to frustrate an Inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic as little as three years ago, not three decades ago", which Mr Kenny made no attempt to substantiate, is unfounded,' the Vatican said.
The Taoiseach's attack, which opened a special Dail debate, followed the publication a week earlier of the fourth major report in six years into the church's cover-ups of clerical abuse.
Cloyne Diocese in County Cork was the latest part of the church to be exposed.
The report singled out former bishop John Magee, a Vatican aide to three Popes, for misleading investigators and making 'dangerous' failures in child protection.
His resignation was accepted by Pope Benedict last year.
The Vatican statement, more than 10,300 words long, was issued after Irish foreign minister Eamon Gilmore demanded answers from the Catholic church on claims it allowed priests to ignore mandatory reporting guidelines on suspected child abusers.
It became embroiled in the latest Irish church scandal after revelations about a 1997 letter from the then papal nuncio to Irish bishops which said the Vatican had serious moral and canonical reservations about reporting sexual abuse of children by priests.
The Vatican says that the comments were taken out of context, which meant they 'could be open to misinterpretation, giving rise to understandable criticism.'
It said the congregation was not forbidding mandatory reporting, 'or in any way encouraging individuals, including clerics, not to cooperate with the Irish civil authorities, let alone disobey Irish civil law'.
Since the publication of the Cloyne report, the Irish government has now made it an offence to withhold information about crimes against children.
The Holy See said while it cannot comment on the proposed legislation, it welcomes and supports attempts to protect children.
Tanaiste and Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore said some of the arguments put forward by the Vatican were legalistic and technical.
But, he added, 'the sense of betrayal which was felt by Irish people about this matter, and which was clearly expressed by the Taoiseach, came about not only because of the nature of child abuse itself but also because of the unique position which the Catholic Church enjoyed in this country, manifested in many ways, over many decades.'
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