Vatican Accused over Failure to Explain Its Role in Cover-Up

By Colm Kelpie, Paul Melia and Fionnan Sheahan
Irish Independent
March 21, 2012

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/vatican-accused-over-failure-to-explain-its-role-in-coverup-3056303.html

SURVIVORS of clerical abuse last night reacted with fury to the Vatican's long-awaited report into the handling of child sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church.

Despite the appointment of four senior churchmen to study the abuse crisis, the Vatican had not explained its role in protecting children from paedophile priests and the subsequent cover-up, victims' groups claimed.

And support group the Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA) revealed it had asked the investigators for a meeting, but were told they did not have enough time to talk to them.

Two years after the so-called Apostolic Visitation was promised by Pope Benedict, a seven-page summary report was published yesterday, with no further details of the investigation expected to be released.

All-Ireland primate Cardinal Sean Brady defended the decision to issue a summary, insisting it contained all the relevant points. "This offers a comprehensive summary of what took place," he said. "In this summary we have all the issues, without the needless details, which need to be addressed."

Six teams were assigned to examine how the four main archdioceses -- Dublin, Cashel and Emly, Armagh and Tuam -- had responded to the child abuse scandal that rocked the church, along with the religious orders and congregations.

Children's Minister Frances Fitzgerald said the report looked at the historic issue of child protection from a "narrow enough perspective", adding that new laws to put child protection guidelines on a statutory footing were being finalised.

But other government sources expressed disappointment that the report did not address the Vatican's own role in child protection in the past, saying it was "not as detailed" as it could have been.

Key findings include:

- Senior church leaders did not do enough to investigate abuse allegations and protect children.

- The current state guidelines on child protection are being followed, with newly discovered cases of abuse being reported to gardai and church authorities.

- Seminary buildings should be "exclusively" for trainee priests and those preparing them for the priesthood. More consistent admission policies must be developed, and academic programmes should focus on child protection.

- An audit of personnel files should be carried out in religious congregations where this has not already happened.

The report also found a tendency "not dominant but fairly widespread among priests, religious and laity to hold theological opinions at variance with the teachings" of the Church. It said this "serious situation" required particular attention.

The senior churchmen also questioned current diocesan structures and said a review would begin with a view to changing these.

Cardinal Brady made a plea for forgiveness from survivors for the "terrible crimes and sins", while Papal Nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown said the church encouraged people to obey the law.

But John Kelly of support group SOCA said the report was short on detail, and amounted to a "bullet point" response from the Vatican.

Support group One in Four said the report was a "lost opportunity" for the Vatican to explain its role in protecting abusive priests.

Abuse survivor Christine Buckley said the report was "pathetic" and made no reference to mandatory reporting of suspected abuse.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that, while he had not had a chance to consider the Vatican report, he was satisfied from his discussions with church authorities that it was giving full cooperation on child protection issues.