SNAP Wisconsin
September 29, 2011
http://www.snapwisconsin.com/blog/2011/09/29/the-cloyne-report-submitted-as-evidence-to-the-international-criminal-court/
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Amnesty International Ireland and the Center for Constitutional Rights have both cited the Cloyne Report as evidence of the Catholic Church’s continued cover-up of clergy sex crimes. The Cloyne Report has been presented to the International Criminal Court at The Hague for their review.
Shortly before Pope Benedict XVI left Rome for his trip to Germany the Vatican issued their official response to the government of Ireland concerning the Cloyne Report. The Cloyne Report sparked common outrage among the citizens of Ireland.
The Prime Minister of Ireland, Enda Kenny, following the publication of the Cloyne Report in July, addressed his parliament with the following words:
“For the first time in this country, a report into child sexual abuse exposes an attempt by the Holy See, to frustrate an Inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic…as little as three years ago, not three decades ago.
And in doing so, the Cloyne Report excavates the dysfunction, the disconnection, the elitism…that dominate the culture of the Vatican today.
The rape and the torture of children were downplayed or ‘managed’ to uphold instead, the primacy of the institution, its power, its standing and its reputation”.
The Prime Minister was expressing his and his citizen’s outrage at the findings of the Cloyne Report. The Cloyne Report, which examined clergy sexual abuse reports in the diocese of Cloyne from 1996 to 2009, found that the bishop of Cloyne, John Magee, was continuing the Catholic Church’s long standing practice of concealing criminal child sexual abuse reports from law enforcement authorities.
The now retired bishop of Cloyne, John Magee is not a cleric of inconsequential stature. Magee is the only cleric in Vatican history who has served as personal secretary to three pontiffs; Paul IV, John Paul I and John Paul II. Magee wielded tremendous power and influence in the highest echelons of the Holy See.
As disturbing as the revelations were that Magee was not reporting child sexual abuse reports to the police, the Cloyne Report found that the Vatican itself was discouraging Magee from making those reports. A 1997 letter from the Vatican, addressed to Ireland’s bishops, stated that “the situation of mandatory reporting gives rise to serious reservations of both a moral and canonical nature.” The Vatican issued the letter in response to proposals put forth by the bishops of Ireland in 1996 that called for the mandatory reporting of clerical sex abusers to law enforcement officials.
This correspondence from the Vatican indicating that the Holy See had “reservations” about a mandatory reporting policy for clerical sex offenders in Ireland certainly contributed to Prime Minister Kenny’s affirmation to his parliament that :
“This is the Republic of Ireland 2011. A republic of laws, of rights and responsibilities, of proper civic order, where the delinquency and arrogance of a particular version of a particular kind of morality will no longer be tolerated or ignored.”
The rule of law which Mr. Kenny so eloquently spoke of was found to have been flagrantly violated by bishop Magee. Magee did not report clerical sex crimes to the police, although he reported that he had done so. In addition to not reporting sex crimes Magee also deliberately falsified the testimony of a diocesan priest.
The commission investigating the diocese of Cloyne found that Magee had created two distinctly separate accounts of his meeting with priest perpetrator Fr. Caden (see investigation beginning on page 269 of report). Caden had been summoned to meet with Magee following a report from a victim/survivor who reported to Magee that he had been sexually assaulted by Caden as a youngster.
Magee created two versions of what took place at that meeting, even going so far as to indicate that the meeting took place on two different dates.
The minutes from the meeting which Magee states occurred on September 15th, 2005 indicate that Fr. Caden admitted to the sexual abuse that had been reported. Magee even notes that Caden offered his resignation which Magee then asked him to put in writing. This description of events was sent in a report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in the Vatican. The CDF, formerly the Office of the Holy Inquisition, is the destination for all reports of clerical sex abuse throughout the world.
The minutes from the meeting which was to have occurred on September 22nd, 2005 stated that Fr. Caden was “shocked and immediately denied the allegation.” This report indicating that Caden had denied sexually abusing a child was placed in the files of the Cloyne diocese.
When asked by the commission to explain the differing version of events Magee explained that it was his understanding that reports sent to the Vatican could not be “discoverable”.
In other words evidence of crimes that had been committed against citizens of Ireland could be hidden away at the Vatican. This action would deliberately interfere with any criminal investigation that Irish officials wished to conduct. In the United States the term most often used to describe this activity is “obstruction of justice.”
In their official response to the government of Ireland this month the Vatican stated that the Prime Minister’s, and the Irish governments, concerns about the continued cover up of sex crimes against the children of Ireland, and the subsequent interference with the rule of law in their nation was “unfounded”.
In a strong rebuke to the Prime Minister the Vatican stated that “…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 official response by the Vatican was a 25 page statement which argued that the Holy See did not hinder the investigation of child sexual abuse reports in the diocese of Cloyne. The Vatican further claimed that it did not interfere with Irish civil law despite evidence to the contrary.
The Vatican claims that the 1997 letter to the Irish bishops expressing their reservations about the mandatory reporting of clerical sex offenders was simply “misunderstood.” The Vatican further added that Irish bishops “were free to apply the penal measures of canon law to offending priests.”
The Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland, Eamon Gilmore replied to the Vatican’s official response by stating that it was “legalistic and technical” and that the 1997 letter which the Vatican claims was “misunderstood” actually “provided a pretext for some to avoid full cooperation with the Irish civil authorities”.
Gilmore added that “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 with such abuse promptly and report it”.
Prime Minister Kenny said that he stands by his speech remarking that “I do not regret my response to the report (Cloyne Report) when I made that statement to the Dail (Irish parliament) in July, I will respond fully in due course”.
Deputy Prime Minister Gilmore affirmed the content of Kenny’s speech stating “Yes, the Government does stand over what the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) said in the Dail…the Taoiseach was speaking for the Government, and he was speaking, I believe for the people of this country”.
Gilmore clearly indicated what is at stake for Irish Government and the Irish people when he added “the point here, as far as the Government is concerned, is that the issue we want addressed is the welfare of children and the protection of children.”
Terence McKiernan, of BishopAccountability, perhaps articulated the current situation in Ireland most clearly when he stated that “Pope Benedict’s response shows the Vatican is still in denial. It still wants people to believe that civil law and the Vatican’s internal policies are parallel legal systems…Benedict’s response shows that he is still bewitched by the church’s self descriptions and policies and procedures, still pretending that the church’s reactive and belated statements break new policy ground, and still unwilling to admit that the structures and policies that emanate from Rome have caused the rape of children, in Cloyne and in diocese worldwide.
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