The Government is to study carefully a "technical and legalistic" response from the Vatican, rejecting claims by Taoiseach Enda Kenny that it attempted to frustrate an inquiry into child sex abuse as "unfounded".
In
a long awaited reply to Mr Kenny's highly critical statement in the
Dail in July, the Vatican said the Cloyne Report itself contained no
statement that would lend support to Mr Kenny's accusations.
The
Vatican said it wanted to make quite clear that it in no way hampered
or interfered with the inquiry into child sex abuse cases in Cloyne.
"Furthermore,
at no stage did it seek to interfere with Irish civil law or impede
the civil authority in the exercise of its duties," the statement
said.
Mr Kenny is to reply later, but last night Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore
acknowledged that the Holy See was "sorry and ashamed" for the
suffering of Irish sex abuse victims and he said the sense of betrayal
felt by Irish people, and clearly expressed by the Taoiseach, came
about not only because of the nature of child abuse but because of the
unique position which the Catholic Church enjoyed in this country.
He
stood over the view of the Cloyne Report that a 1997 letter from the
then papal nuncio provided a pretext for some to avoid full
co-operation with the Irish civil authorities.
The Vatican reply
said that it also did not accept that it was somehow indifferent to
the plight of those who suffered abuse in Ireland as Mr Kenny implied in his speech.
"In
a spirit of humility the Holy See, while rejecting unfounded
accusations, welcomes all objective and helpful observations and
suggestions to combat with determination the appalling crime of sexual
abuse of minors," it said.
In July, Mr Kenny -- in an
unprecedented attack by an Irish politician on the Vatican referring
to Cloyne -- said for the first time in Ireland a report into child
sexual abuse "exposes 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".
In remarks which stunned the Vatican,
he said: "And in doing so, the Cloyne Report excavates the
dysfunction, disconnection, elitism, the narcissism that dominate the
culture of the Vatican to this day.
The rape and torture of children
were downplayed or 'managed' to uphold instead the primacy of the
institution, its power, standing and reputation."
Mr Kenny's
speech followed the publication of the Cloyne Report which found that
the Vatican had undermined attempts by Irish bishops to protect
children from predator priests.
Cloyne was the first report to squarely
find the Vatican culpable in promoting the culture of secrecy and
cover-up that allowed abusers to prey on more children.
The
Cloyne Report based much of its accusations against the Holy See on a
1997 letter from the Vatican's 'ambassador to Ireland' to the
country's bishops expressing "serious reservations" about their policy
requiring bishops to report abusers to gardai.
A committee of
Irish bishops had adopted the policy in 1996 under mounting public
pressure as the first cover-ups came to light.
The Cloyne Report
said the 1997 letter "effectively gave individual Irish bishops the
freedom to ignore the procedures which they had agreed and gave
comfort and support to those who . . . dissented from the stated
official church policy."
In its response, the Vatican concurred
that, taken out of context, the 1997 letter could give rise to
"understandable criticism".
But it said the letter had been
misunderstood, that Cloyne's conclusions were "inaccurate" and that
Kenny's denunciation was "unfounded".
The Vatican response noted
that during the Nineties there was no law in Ireland requiring
professionals to report suspected abuse to gardai.
"Given that the
Irish Government of the day decided not to legislate on the matter,
it is difficult to see how (the Vatican's) letter to the Irish
bishops, which was issued subsequently, could possibly be construed as
having somehow subverted Irish law or undermined the Irish state in its
efforts to deal with the problem in question," the Vatican said.
The
Cloyne Report had admonished the Vatican for diminishing the bishops'
abuse policy as a mere "study document" in the 1997 letter, implying
that it wasn't an official policy that needed to be followed.
The policy had been presented at the time as mandatory for all of Ireland's bishops.
The
Vatican, however, said the policy was never a legally binding policy
because the Irish bishops themselves had never sought to make it so by
submitting it for official approval by the Vatican.
It also said
accusations of interference by the Holy See are belied by the many
reports cited as the basis for such criticisms.
The reports
"contain no evidence to suggest the Holy See meddled in the internal
affairs of the Irish State or for that matter was involved in the
day-to-day management of Irish dioceses or religious congregations with
respect to sexual issues".
However, Mr Gilmore said the
Government's concerns were never about the status of church documents
but about the welfare of children.
On Saturday the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin also responded.
Asked by the Sunday Independent if he was now calling on Taoiseach Enda Kenny
personally to explain his Dail comments in which he accused the
Vatican of attempting to frustrate inquiries into clerical abuse here,
Dr Martin replied: "I said it does require explanation from somebody
from the Government side. There was a reference to an attempt to
undermine a State investigation three years ago. Now that's a very
specific allegation and I think the truth requires [explanation], I'm
not saying this again as a polemic. I deliberately limited my comment
to three words, 'this requires explanation'."
Commenting on the
future for child protection policy, Dr Martin stressed that the chief
responsibility for this had to rest with the State.
"The primary
responsibility for monitoring child safeguarding measures in any
dimension of Irish society -- I repeat -- belongs with the Irish State,"
he said.