Italians say: The wise do freely at first what fools are forced to do at last.The Vatican has a long way to go before exhausting its folly and begins to do what it should've done to start with.
As if our problems were not bad enough, Rome is sending to Ireland a group of top prelates to sort out priest sex-abuse.
Doesn't every dog in every Irish street know what's needed?
Obey Jesus and protect victims, not abusers.
No more cover-ups.
Treat abuse as firstly a crime that clerics have no right to deal with. Call in the cops to deal with these horrendous crimes.
CULPRITS
Reduce 100pc tolerance to zero. Any cleric with even one serious charge against him, however long ago, must be suspended till the police give the all-clear. Church authorities must open their archives to inspection.
Rome continues to insult the Irish people as if their loyalty to Christ and his Church was ever in question.
They were naive in trusting a wicked regime but their faith was ever a light to the world.
Benedict's delay in setting out new guidelines has an obvious explanation.
The chief culprits are not priests, but bishops. It was they who blocked the operation of justice.
Most priest abusers would've been dead in the water if bishops had not connived with them and shielded them from prosecution. Hasn't Rome done enough damage without sending foreign prelates to Ireland?
What's wrong is not Ireland but the Roman regime. I'd be happier if those prelates travelled to Rome to inspect the books of Vatican congregations, especially the Holy Office.
Those chiefly responsible are John Paul II, who set the tone by refusing year after year even to name the crisis. Second, his rottweiler at the Holy Office, Josef Ratzinger.
Benedict's spokesman says Ratzinger never forbade bishops to inform the police. Nor did he order them to.
He knew bishops everywhere were covering up and selling Catholic children down the river and the Watchdog did not bark once. In over 20 years, not one dickey-bird.
Now Rome, it seems without a by-your-leave from the Irish Government, is about to intrude in Irish institutions like Maynooth. Would the CIA be allowed to behave like this?
Did Rome bother to inform our Government before telling the world?
Have these foreigners sought its consent or discussed the parameters of their visit?
Have they promised to tell the gardai of any new crimes they come across or will they only relay them to a foreign head of state?
Maybe Ireland should imitate the Israelis and put an exclusion zone around our country for boats and planes bringing in emissaries of a foreign power to intrude into our grief as we deal with the horrors Rome inflicted on our people for generations.
What we need is a more thorough investigation by the Irish State into bishops who mishandled paedophile cases. Chief to require scrutiny are Cardinals Connell and Brady.
Uniform
Why did Connell fail to tell what he knew to police under the flimsiest excuse of mental reservations?
Why is Brady clinging to office after admitting he knew Fr Brendan Smyth was a pervert and by persistent silence allowed him to continue abusing for another 18 years?
Why did the entire hierarchy create a heaven for priest sex-abusers and a hell for their child victims?
How come they acted in such a uniform way?
As to the future, there is a Bible precedent.
Israel's 40 years in the desert was to allow a generation of back-sliders to die out before entering the Promised Land.
It'll take that long for the present breed of bishops to disappear.
By then, the Irish flock will be much smaller with only a few priests left.
SIC: EH