VATICAN: THE VATICAN’S advice to the Irish bishops
on their child protection policies cannot be interpreted as an
invitation to cover up abuse cases, according to a senior Holy See
spokesman.
Making his first extended comment on the implications
of the Cloyne report, spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said there was
nothing in the advice given by the papal nuncio in 1997 to encourage
bishops to break Irish laws.
Fr Lombardi argued that the
controversial letter from papal nuncio Luciano Storero in 1997 was
grossly misinterpreted following publication of the report.
Speaking on
Vatican Radio, Fr Lombardi said the report “has once again highlighted
the serious nature of things that happened, this time rather recently”.
In
his address, he made no observation about the Bishop John Magee, or his
handling of child protection policies in the diocese, which were
heavily criticised in the report.
The nuncio’s 1997 letter
delivered the reaction of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy to
the child protection measures introduced by the Irish bishops a year
earlier.
The Cloyne report said the letter was “entirely unhelpful to
any bishop who wanted to implement the agreed procedures”.
In the
letter, the nuncio states: “In particular, the situation of ‘mandatory
reporting’ gives rise to serious reservations of both a moral and a
canonical nature”. This has been widely interpreted as an invitation to
implement a “cover-up” and not to report cases of clerical child abuse
to civil authorities.
However, Fr Lombardi argues: “There is no
good reason to understand that letter as an invitation to cover up abuse
cases. In truth, it was pointed out that there was a risk that
sanctions might be taken which could later be judged invalid or
questionable from the canonical viewpoint, thus thwarting the very
intentions . . . of the Irish bishops . . . There is absolutely nothing
in the letter which could be seen as an invitation not to respect the
laws of the land.”
In relation to mandatory reporting, Fr Lombardi
said the “objections raised by the letter in relation to ‘mandatory
reporting’ did not contradict any Irish law because there was no such
law in Ireland at that time”.
“In that regard, the seriousness of
certain accusations made against the Vatican is very curious. It is as
if the Holy See was guilty of not having given validity in canon law to a
measure which the State had not considered necessary to make valid in
civil law. In wanting to attribute serious responsibility to the Holy
See for that which happened in Ireland, such accusations seem to go some
way beyond that which is contained in the report (which uses more
balanced tones when attributing blame).”
Fr Lombardi also claimed
that the “framework document” sent by the bishops to Rome was not an
“official document” but rather a report by the bishops’ “advisory
committee on child sexual abuse”.
CW Editor: You can access the letter to the Irish Hierarchy from the Nuncio in 1997 here