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	Vatican Fends off Irish Criticism of Sex Abuse Scandal By Stacy Meichtry Wall Street Journal September 3, 2011 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904716604576548894243720146.html ROME -- The Vatican on Saturday rebutted criticism from the Irish government over its handling of allegations of sex abuse by priests in Ireland, denying Dublin's claims that the Holy See discouraged local bishops from reporting the abuse to civil authorities. In a letter to Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore, posted on the Vatican's website, the Holy See delivered its first formal response to searing criticism from Ireland's parliament and government that led to a diplomatic stand-off between the countries. For more than a month, the Vatican has maintained near-silence in the face of demands from Irish officials that the Holy See respond to a July 13 report by a government-appointed commission that documented abuse in Ireland's Cloyne Diocese. The commission found that diocesan officials had failed to follow the Irish church's guidelines and act on complaints of abuse against 19 priests filed from 1996 to 2009 and report them to civil authorities. "The Holy See wishes to make it quite clear that it in no way hampered or sought to interfere in any inquiry into cases of child sexual abuse in the Diocese of Cloyne. Furthermore, at no stage did the Holy See seek to interfere with Irish civil law or impede the civil authority in the exercise of its duties," the Vatican said on Saturday. The Cloyne report cited a 1997 letter from the Vatican that questioned whether Irish bishops had overstepped canon law by requiring church officials to report allegations of abuse to police. In that letter, the Vatican's then-ambassador to Ireland Archbishop Luciano Storero told Irish bishops the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy had "serious reservations of both a moral and a canonical nature" regarding local church measures that required "mandatory reporting" of abuse allegations to civil authorities. Irish officials seized on that letter as evidence the Vatican had discouraged church officials from reporting the abuse. "The Holy See acknowledges … that, taken out of context, the letter could be open to misinterpretation, giving rise to understandable criticism," the Vatican said on Saturday. The 1997 letter, the Vatican said, was intended as a guideline to ensure the church's canon laws were properly followed in order to effectively prosecute sex offenders in church tribunals. "Meeting canonical requirements to ensure the correct administration of justice within the Church in no way precluded cooperation with the civil authorities," the Vatican said. "The Congregation for the Clergy did express reservations about mandatory reporting, but it did not forbid the Irish Bishops from reporting accusations of child sexual abuse nor did it encourage them to flout Irish law," the Vatican added. Mr. Gilmore said in a statement that his office had received the 25-page Vatican letter and was in the process of reviewing it. "Some of the argumentation advanced by the Holy See in its response is very technical and legalistic. The government's concerns were never about the status of church documents but rather about the welfare of children," he said. The diplomatic spat between the Vatican and Ireland is the latest sign of Pope Benedict XVI's struggle to quell the sexual abuse crisis that exploded across Europe last year. The pope issued a letter to Irish Catholics apologizing for the church's handling of the abuse allegations. He also strengthened Vatican rules for removing abusive priests from the priesthood and has accepted the resignations of three Irish bishops who failed to respond to the abuse allegations. Those steps, however, have done little to restore the Catholic Church's standing in Ireland, where it was once considered an unassailable institution. After the Cloyne report was issued in July, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny delivered an address to Parliament in which he criticized "the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism—and the narcissism—that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day." "For the first time in Ireland, a report into child sexual-abuse exposes an attempt by the Holy See, to frustrate an inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic," Mr. Kenny said. "The rape and torture of children were downplayed or 'managed' to uphold instead, the primacy of the institution, its power, standing and 'reputation.' " The Vatican said it had "significant reservations about some aspects" of Mr. Kenny's address to parliament. The prime minister's claim that the Holy See tried to undermine Irish sovereignty "is unfounded," the Vatican added. Contact: stacy.meichtry@wsj.com
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