Ireland Accepts Vatican's Offer, by Gerard O'Connell, Vatican Insider, September 5, 2011

Ireland Accepts Vatican's Offer

By Gerard O'Connell
Vatican Insider
September 5, 2011

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/news/detail/articolo/irlanda-ireland-irlanda-vaticano-vatican-pedofilia-pedophilia-7725/

[TRANSLATE TO ENGLISH:] EAMON GILMORE

The Irish Foreign Minister's answer to the Vatican for constructive dialogue on issues of child protection

The Irish Government has given a generally positive, though cautious, initial reception to the Vatican's Response to the official Report on the abuse of 40 children by 19 priests in the diocese of Cloyne. In its first official comment, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Eamon Gilmore, said he accepted the Vatican's offer to engage in a constructive dialogue and cooperate on issues concerning the promotion of child welfare and ending the appalling scourge of clerical abuse in the Republic of Ireland.

He was referring to the statement in the Response, where the Holy See reaffirmed its "commitment to constructive dialogue and cooperation with the Irish Government, naturally on the basis of mutual respect, so that all institutions, whether public or private, religious or secular, may work together to ensure that the Church and, indeed, society in general will always be safe for children and young people".

Speaking on RTE, the national television's Six-O-One News, hours after the Holy See published its Response, Gilmore noted that the Vatican had indicated its wish to engage in a constructive dialogue with the Irish government on issues regarding the protection and welfare of children, and said "We can build on this".

"This is something that certainly I am willing to take on as Minister for Foreign Affairs, and we can conduct that at an official level", Gilmore stated. "I also think it is a discussion that needs to take place in public because a lot of what has turned out here, a lot of the concerns people have about the need to protect children and the way issues have been handled are issues that I do think need to be ventilated in public", he added.

The Foreign Minister was in Poland for a European Union meeting when the Secretary for Relations with States, Mgr. Ettore Balestrero, handed over the Response to the Charge d'Affaires of Ireland's Embassy to the Holy See, Helena Keleher, during a meeting in the Vatican on Saturday morning, September 3.

In an official statement issued hours later, Gilmore said the Government had asked for a response and had now received "a detailed" 25-page report, which it would carefully study. On Irish TV, he added that the Government would "respond to it in detail".

He acknowledged with satisfaction that the Vatican said it was "sorry and ashamed" for the terrible sufferings of the victims of child abuse in Ireland and their families. He also noted "the seriousness with which the Holy See views the appalling evidence of such abuse that had taken place in the diocese of Cloyne and elsewhere."

On Irish TV, he said, he hoped that these statements "will go some way to meet the strong feelings of anger that exist among the Irish people, which is shared by the Government."

The Foreign Minister, in his statement, observed that "some of the argumentation advanced by the Holy See in its Response is very technical and legalistic", whereas "the Government's concerns were never about the status of church documents but rather about the welfare of children."

He said the sexual abuse of children "is such a heinous and reprehensible crime, that issues about the precise status of documents should not be allowed to obscure the obligation of people in positions of responsibility to deal promptly with such abuse and report it."

Minister Gilmore added that "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."

He then went onto speak about the Vatican's intervention on the Framework Document of guidelines that the Irish Bishops had adopted in 1996 to deal with abuse cases, which has become a highly controversial issue in Ireland, and was a key element in the attack by the Irish authorities on the Vatican.

The Congregation for Clergy had expressed reservations about Framework Document, and had communicated these to the Irish bishops in a letter from the Nuncio, Archbishop Storero, in January 1997. The Foreign Minister accused the Vatican of having in this way "provided a pretext for some to avoid full cooperation with the Irish Civil authorities." In his official statement, he said he still holds this view.

Later on Irish TV, he elaborated on this saying, "I don't have any doubt that the letter which was circulated in 1997 did have the effect of having some priests believe that they didn't in effect have to be as cooperative with Irish law as they should have been. I stand over that. But obviously, I will look at the detailed response that the Vatican has given."