MARGARET KENNEDY and Brendan Butler, two members of the seven-strong
Irish delegation that attended last Sunday’s multinational protest by
clerical sex abuse victims at the Vatican, are to register protests with
the Department of Foreign Affairs in relation to how they were treated
by Vatican police.
Ms Kennedy, a sex abuse survivor who suffers
from Parkinson’s disease and is wheelchair bound, and Mr Butler both
made their way up from the demonstration venue, just outside Castel
Sant’Angelo, to St Peter’s Square.
Ms Kennedy wished to leave two
stones in the square, in memory of sex abuse victims. Once inside the
square, they were stopped by Vatican police who identified them as being
linked to the Reformation Day protest, organised by the US victims’
group, Survivor’s Voice.
Given that no form of protest, political,
religious or otherwise, is ever allowed by Vatican authorities within
St Peter’s Square, Ms Kennedy and Mr Butler were stopped.
Police asked
them for their passports and took these away for verification.
After 45
minutes, the passports were handed back and the two Irish protesters
sent on their way.
Last night, Mr Butler said that, although the
police behaviour had been courteous and correct, he still found it
inexplicable that he and Ms Kennedy should have been asked for their IDs
and stopped for 45 minutes.
While it is routine practice in Italy
for police to stop citizens and ask for their identity papers, not
everyone is happy about the treatment of the two Irish protesters.
Rome
city councillor Gianluca Pecicola, a member of the leftist Sel (Left,
Ecology and Liberty) party, yesterday called for an explanation “from
the Rome head of police to explain just why [these] protesters have to
be identified since this is an inexplicable incident which does damage
to people who have already suffered terrible abuse and violence”.
SIC: IT/IE