THE Tánaiste should invite one of the Vatican’s most
senior diplomats to Ireland to discuss this country’s relationship with
the Holy See in light of revelations in the Cloyne Report, according to
Fianna Fáil.
Party leader Micheál Martin said Foreign Affairs
Minister Eamon Gilmore should invite his counterpart in the Vatican,
Dominique Mamberti, the Secretary for Relations with States, to Dublin.
He also said that the Vatican needed to issue an apology to the Government.
Mr Martin told Radio Na Gaeltachta that Ireland’s relationship with the Vatican needed to be re-examined.
Mr Martin’s comments came hours after a senior Vatican spokesman called for "objectivity" in the debate over the Cloyne report.
Fr Federico Lombardi was responding to Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s Dáil speech on Wednesday, in which he robustly denounced the Vatican’s role in the management of child sexual abuse complaints.
In a statement issued late on Thursday, Fr Lombardi said: "It is to be hoped that the ongoing debate on such dramatic issues can be carried out with the necessary objectivity so as to contribute to the matter which should most concern us all, namely the safety of children and of young people, and the renewal of a climate of trust and collaboration to this end, in both the church and society, as wished for by the Pope in his letter to the Catholics of Ireland."
Earlier this week, Mr Kenny lambasted the Vatican for its reaction to allegations of abuse of children in Cloyne.
In a groundbreaking, unexpected and powerful speech on Wednesday, Mr Kenny said the Cloyne report exposed the "dysfunction, disconnection, elitism and narcissism" at the heart of the Vatican.
The rape and torture of children was deliberately "downplayed" in order to protect the Vatican’s primacy and power, the Taoiseach said.
Making clear that the days of Church dominance over the state were long gone, Mr Kenny declared: "This is not Rome... [but] 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."
Mr Kenny was speaking as TDs unanimously backed a motion expressing sympathy with victims and deploring the Vatican’s attempts to frustrate the reporting of abuse cases to the authorities.
He said the revelations of the Cloyne report had brought the Government, Catholics and the Vatican to an "unprecedented juncture".
While previous reports into child sex abuse had left the country "unshockable", Cloyne had proved to be "of a different order" because it exposed "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", Mr Kenny claimed.
He also said that the Vatican needed to issue an apology to the Government.
Mr Martin told Radio Na Gaeltachta that Ireland’s relationship with the Vatican needed to be re-examined.
Mr Martin’s comments came hours after a senior Vatican spokesman called for "objectivity" in the debate over the Cloyne report.
Fr Federico Lombardi was responding to Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s Dáil speech on Wednesday, in which he robustly denounced the Vatican’s role in the management of child sexual abuse complaints.
In a statement issued late on Thursday, Fr Lombardi said: "It is to be hoped that the ongoing debate on such dramatic issues can be carried out with the necessary objectivity so as to contribute to the matter which should most concern us all, namely the safety of children and of young people, and the renewal of a climate of trust and collaboration to this end, in both the church and society, as wished for by the Pope in his letter to the Catholics of Ireland."
Earlier this week, Mr Kenny lambasted the Vatican for its reaction to allegations of abuse of children in Cloyne.
In a groundbreaking, unexpected and powerful speech on Wednesday, Mr Kenny said the Cloyne report exposed the "dysfunction, disconnection, elitism and narcissism" at the heart of the Vatican.
The rape and torture of children was deliberately "downplayed" in order to protect the Vatican’s primacy and power, the Taoiseach said.
Making clear that the days of Church dominance over the state were long gone, Mr Kenny declared: "This is not Rome... [but] 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."
Mr Kenny was speaking as TDs unanimously backed a motion expressing sympathy with victims and deploring the Vatican’s attempts to frustrate the reporting of abuse cases to the authorities.
He said the revelations of the Cloyne report had brought the Government, Catholics and the Vatican to an "unprecedented juncture".
While previous reports into child sex abuse had left the country "unshockable", Cloyne had proved to be "of a different order" because it exposed "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", Mr Kenny claimed.