The Vatican
refused to allow its officials to testify before an Irish commission
investigating the clerical abuse of children and was angered when they
were summoned from Rome, US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks reveal.
Requests for information from the 2009 Murphy commission into sexual and physical abuse by clergy "offended many in the Vatican" who felt that the Irish government had "failed to respect and protect Vatican sovereignty during the investigations", a cable says.
Despite
the lack of co-operation from the Vatican, the commission was able to
substantiate many of the claims and concluded that some bishops had
tried to cover up abuse, putting the interests of the Catholic church
ahead of those of the victims.
Its report identified 320 people who
complained of child sexual abuse between 1975 and 2004 in the Dublin
archdiocese.
A cable entitled "Sex abuse scandal strains
Irish-Vatican relations, shakes up Irish church, and poses challenges
for the Holy See" claimed that Vatican officials also believed Irish
opposition politicians were "making political hay" from the situation by
publicly urging the government to demand a reply from the Vatican.
Ultimately,
the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone (equivalent
to a prime minister), wrote to the Irish embassy, ordering that any
requests related to the investigation must come through diplomatic
channels.
In the cable Noel Fahey, the Irish ambassador to the
Holy See, told the US diplomat Julieta Valls Noyes that the Irish clergy
sex abuse scandal was the most difficult crisis he had ever managed.
The
Irish government wanted "to be seen as co-operating with the
investigation" because its own education department was implicated, but
politicians were reluctant to press Vatican officials to answer the
investigators' queries.
According to Fahey's deputy, Helena
Keleher, the government acceded to Vatican pressure and granted them
immunity from testifying. Officials understood that "foreign ambassadors
are not required or expected to appear before national commissions",
but Keleher's opinion was that by ignoring the commission's requests the
clergy had made the situation worse.
The cable reveals the
behind-the-scenes diplomacy in which politicians in the Irish government
attempted to persuade an imperious Vatican to engage with the
investigation.
The foreign minister, Michael Martin, "was forced
to call in the papal nuncio (representative)" to discuss the situation.
The ambassador reported that resentment towards the church in Rome
remained very high in Ireland, largely because of the institutionalised cover-up of abuse by the Catholic church hierarchy.
Finally
the Vatican changed tactics and on 11 December 2009 the ambassador
stated that the pope had held a meeting with senior Irish clerics.
The
Irish cardinal Seán Brady and the archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin,
went to Rome and met the pontiff, who was flanked by Bertone and four
other cardinals.
At the end of the meeting, the Vatican issued a
statement saying that the pope shared the "outrage, betrayal, and shame"
of Irish Catholics, that he was praying for the victims, and that the
church would take steps to prevent recurrences.
On 21 March this
year, Benedict issued a letter savaging the Irish bishops for their
earlier handling of the crisis: "Grave errors of judgment were made and
failures of leadership occurred. All this has seriously undermined your
credibility and effectiveness."
He also apologised to the victims:
"You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. I know that nothing
can undo the wrong you have endured. Your trust has been betrayed and
your dignity has been violated. It is understandable that you find it
hard to forgive or be reconciled with the church. In her name, I openly
express the shame and remorse that we all feel."
In a section
entitled "Some Lessons Learned, but Crisis Will Play Out for Years", the
ambassador related that his contacts at the Vatican and in Ireland
expected the crisis in the Irish Catholic church to be protracted over
several years, as the Murphy commission dealt only with allegations from
the Dublin archdiocese.
They believed further investigations into
other archdioceses would lead, "officials in both states lament, to
additional painful revelations".
SIC: TG/UK