RTE News
September 9, 2011
http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0909/cloyne.html
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| Govt stands over its criticism of the Vatican's handling of child abuse allegations here |
Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has said that the Government stands over its criticism of the Vatican's handling of child abuse allegations here.
Last night, the Government said Taoiseach Enda Kenny's Dail comments in July on the Cloyne Report accurately reflected the public anger.
Speaking on Morning Ireland, Mr Shatter reiterated that the Vatican had frustrated inquiries into clerical child abuse in Cloyne and Dublin, by failing to provide information as recently as 2008.
Mr Shatter said: ''We are very clear where we are going. Our focus is on the protection of children and child welfare.
''We are proceeding to enact legislation and introduce reforms that are essential to provide the best possible protection to children.''
When asked about the specific failings of the Vatican, the minister said: ''It (the Vatican) failed to co-operate with the Murphy Commission, failed to provide information readily available to it with regard to the abuse of children in both the Dublin diocese and subsequently the Cloyne diocese.
''And because a request for information was made directly by the Murphy Commission, (the Vatican) used the diplomatic ploy of refusing to deal with the matter because the request hadn't come through the Department of Foreign Affairs when it couldn't have done so because the Murphy Commission was independent of Government."
The minister said ''very substantial assistance'' could have been provided to the commission by the offices of the Papal Nuncio, but insisted ''no such assistance was ever provided''.
Mr Shatter said the issue raised about priests revealing details of information given in confession was an "irrelevant and largely bogus" one.
He said all of the incidents of abuse investigated in Dublin and Cloyne "had nothing at all to do with the confessional".
But the minister did say that the legal system would lose credibility if abusers were given more protection than money laundering, as serious an offence as the latter is.
"I don't think you can credibly say you can give people permission to conceal admissions of child abuse, while compelling people (lawyers and accountants) whose relationships with others are normally privileged, to give information about money laundering."
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