THE Vatican last night denied it had snubbed Diarmuid Martin
by overlooking the Archbishop of Dublin as a speaker at its first major
conference of bishops and heads of religious orders on clerical child
abuse.
The conference, which is to be held in Rome next February,
will be attended by bishops and religious superiors and is billed as
changing the culture of secrecy in which the Catholic church has dealt
with complaints of priests who sexually abuse minors.
The exclusion of Dr Martin,
the foremost prelate worldwide advocating the church to be accountable
to abuse victims, was noted in yesterday's edition of 'The Tablet', the
international Catholic weekly.
"One leading church figure not among the presenters is Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin," wrote its Rome correspondent, Robert Mickens.
Earlier
this month, Dr Martin voiced his "increasing impatience" that the
Vatican had not published its promised blueprint for the reform of the
scandal-rocked Catholic church in Ireland, which was due out by the end of May.
This
related to the recommendations for renewal by a special investigation
of the Irish church ordered by Pope Benedict from a team of foreign
churchmen led by former Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Cormac Murphy
O'Connor, and Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley.
It
has since emerged that the Vatican will not make public the findings of
the investigators, known as 'Apostolic Visitors', until early next
year.
Vatican spokesman Fr Frederico Lombardi insisted that Dr Martin had not been left off the roster of speakers intentionally.
"The
organisers wanted speakers from all continents," said Fr Lombardi,
adding that one aim of the conference was to help produce a "global
approach" for how the church around the world dealt with the issue of
clerical sexual abuse.
Support
The three-day event is being organised by the Jesuit-run Gregorian University with the full support of the Pope.
It is to be opened on February 6 by Cardinal William Levada, head of the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.