Shifting relationship between church and state
NOVEMBER 2005
Judge Yvonne Murphy is appointed to lead the commission of investigation, set up by the government to investigate the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations in the Dublin archdiocese between 1975 and 2004.
SEPTEMBER 2006
The Murphy commission writes to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith seeking information on reports of clerical child sex abuse sent to it by Dublin archdiocese. The congregation does not reply.
FEBRUARY 2007
The commission writes to the papal nuncio in Dublin asking that he forward to it all documents in his possession which might be relevant to it.
The papal nuncio does not reply.
NOVEMBER 26th, 2009
The Murphy report is published.
It finds that four successive archbishops of the Dublin Catholic archdiocese handled allegations of child sexual abuse with “denial, arrogance and cover-up” and that the structures and rules of the Catholic Church facilitated the cover-up of abuse.
NOVEMBER 28th, 2009
Then taoiseach Brian Cowen describes as a “crushing verdict” the finding that the standing of the church as an institution was placed above the basic safety of children.
However, he says it is up to religious organisations and their members to determine the “appropriateness” of individuals to hold ecclesiastical office.
DECEMBER 15th, 2009
At a meeting with the papal nuncio Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, then minister for foreign affairs Micheál Martin emphasises public anger at the “appalling abuse of children” in the Murphy report and explains the need “for the Holy See to provide the fullest possible co-operation with any ongoing or further State investigations into clerical child abuse”.
FEBRUARY 15th, 2010
Fine Gael’s spokesperson on children Alan Shatter describes as “scandalous” the papal nuncio’s decision not to address the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee following the Murphy commission’s finding that the papal nuncio refused to co-operate with its inquiry.
DECEMBER 11th, 2010
The publication of US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks indicates that information sought by the Murphy commission in 2006 offended many in the Vatican who felt that the Irish government had “failed to respect and protect Vatican sovereignty”.
JULY 13th, 2011
The Cloyne report is published.
It accuses the Vatican, through its opposition to the Irish bishops’ procedures for handling child sexual abuse, of giving comfort to dissenters within the church who did not want to implement them and reveals that, in a secret letter to the bishops, the Vatican described the 1996 rules as “merely a study document”.
JULY 13th, 2011
Cardinal Seán Brady apologises for the church failings outlined in the Cloyne report.
JULY 20th, 2011
In a speech in the Dáil, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the Cloyne report excavated the “dysfunction, disconnection, elitism, the narcissism” dominating the culture of the Vatican to this day.
JULY 21st, 2011
The Department of Foreign Affairs says that due to strained relations with the Vatican and the economic crisis, no action has yet been taken on an appointment of an Irish ambassador to the Holy See.
JULY 25th, 2011
The Holy See recalls the Vatican’s envoy Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza for consultations.
SEPTEMBER 3rd, 2011
In a formal response to the Government, the Holy See rejects accusations that it hampered or interfered with the inquiry into abuse cover-ups in the diocese of Cloyne.