THE WIKILEAKS disclosure that the Government did not press the
Vatican to co-operate with the inquiry into the Catholic Church’s
handling of child abuse was yesterday dismissed as a “sideshow” by the
relevant Minister.
There has also been strong reaction to the disclosure
from victims of clerical sexual abuse. Fianna Fáil had been too close to
the Catholic Church through the recent years of clerical child sex
abuse revelations and this had inhibited it from doing what should have
been done, Dublin abuse victim Andrew Madden said last night.
He
was commenting after weekend WikiLeaks disclosures that requests to the
Vatican for information from the Murphy commission “offended many” there
who felt the Irish Government had “failed to respect and protect
Vatican sovereignty during the (commission) investigations”.
US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks also maintained the Irish Government acceded to Vatican pressure on the matter.
Minister
of State for Children Barry Andrews said the fact the contents of a
cable from the US embassy in the Holy See was published did not mean it
was true, or showed in any way the Government did not want to co-operate
with the Murphy commission’s investigation into how the Archdiocese of
Dublin handled complaints of abuse made against its clergy.
Mr
Andrews said the contents of the cable, as published, were a sideshow.
He said it focused completely on how the information from the Vatican
was to be elicited.
He said the important thing was that the
information came to light, not how that occurred.
“To me it was a
complete sideshow, whether came through the Irish Government or though
the [Murphy] commission,” he told RTÉ’s
This Week .
“The issue was, can we get the Vatican
co-operating with the inquiry? As you know, Micheál Martin brought the
papal nuncio into his office in November last year and told him that it
was not acceptable that they were not providing the information.”
He said the Vatican has subsequently agreed to set up an inquiry and said it will publish a report.
Mr
Madden said all statutory inquiries into clerical child sex abuse set
up by Fianna Fáil-led governments had been in response to media reports
and pressure from victims such as himself, rather than resulting from
any initiative by Fianna Fáil, he said.
“Fianna Fáil has been in
office for 99 per cent of the revelations and could have set up
inquiries as far back in 1998, after Brendan Smyth and after it emerged
that Ivan Payne had abused other children after me, but it didn’t do so.
The Catholic vote was more important,” he said.
As an example, he noted
the Murphy commission came into being after the
Prime Time programme
Cardinal Secrets in October 2002, because it was “expedient to do so”, he said.
Mr
Madden called on Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin to publish
the letter by the Irish Ambassador to the Holy See, Noel Fahey, sent in
reply to correspondence from Vatican secretary of state Cardinal
Tarcisio Bertone.
The cardinal had advised that any requests related to
the Murphy investigation should come through diplomatic channels.
Mr
Madden said there was nothing new in the WikiLeaks revelations, “just a
reminder of attitudes at the heart of the Catholic Church”.
Maeve
Lewis of the One in Four group thought it “shameful” the Vatican “should
hide behind diplomatic protocol” in the context. She found the
Government’s approach to the matter disappointing.
Ellen
O’Malley-Dunlop of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre said it was
heartbreaking for victims to be reminded of the church’s “betrayal”.
The centre offers a helpline at 1800 778888.
SIC: IT/IE