My Claim Still Stands, by Lorraine O'Hanlon, Galway Independent, September 7, 2011

My Claim Still Stands

By Lorraine O'Hanlon
Galway Independent
September 7, 2011

http://www.galwayindependent.com/local-news/local-news/my-claim-still-stands-20110907/

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has stood by his assertion that the Vatican attempted to frustrate a state inquiry into clerical child sex abuse. In its response to the Cloyne report at the weekend, the Vatican described as “unfounded” the Taoiseach’s Dail claim that it attempted to frustrate an inquiry into abuse “as little as three years ago”.

However, speaking at Fine Gael’s ‘think-in’ at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Galway yesterday, Mr Kenny said the Murphy Commission had requested information and assistance from the Vatican in 2006, 2007, and 2009, and that, in each case, those requests were either refused or rejected.

He stressed that, as the Murphy Commission is a statutory commission of inquiry, nothing less than full co-operation is required. “And anything less than full co-operation in my opinion is unwarranted interference,” he said.

“As a member of the Catholic Church, I want to see that the church of which I am a member is absolutely above reproach in the issue of this and other areas. And for that reason, my claim in the Dail still stands,” he said.

Mr Kenny added that his criticism of the Vatican was an “expression of the anger and the frustration and the concern of so many people in this country about issues related to this over a very long number of years”.

And he said that he now wants to move on now to a position where the Catholic Church and every other organisation, faith-based or otherwise, will co-operate with the Government in relation to the safeguarding of children.