Taoiseach Enda Kenny today told the Dáil the Cloyne report exposed an
attempt by the Holy See to frustrate the inquiry into clerical sex
abuse.
Addressing the House, Mr Kenny said: "The rape and torture
of children were downplayed or ‘managed’ to uphold instead, the primacy
of the institution, its power, standing and ‘reputation’.
"Far
from listening to evidence of humiliation and betrayal with St
Benedict’s “ear of the heart” . . . the Vatican’s reaction was to parse
and analyse it with the gimlet eye of a canon lawyer. . . . This
calculated, withering position being the polar opposite of the
radicalism, humility and compassion upon which the Roman Church was
founded."
"The revelations of the Cloyne report have brought the
Government, Irish Catholics and the Vatican to an unprecedented
juncture," the Taoiseach said.
"It’s fair to say that after the
Ryan and Murphy reports Ireland is, perhaps, unshockable when it comes
to the abuse of children. But Cloyne has proved to be of a different
order.
"Because 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. And in doing so, the Cloyne Report
excavates the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism . . . the narcissism .
. . that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day."
Mr
Kenny said the Cloyne report told "a tale of a frankly brazen disregard
for protecting children".
He said although the report had shown the need
for the Vatican "to get its house in order", it also revealed how the
State had failed victims too.
"For too long Ireland has neglected its children," he said.
Mr
Kenny was speaking during a Government motion on the report that
“deplores the Vatican’s intervention which contributed to the
undermining of the child protection frameworks and guidelines of the
Irish State and the Irish bishops”.
It expresses “dismay at the
disturbing findings of the report and at the inadequate and
inappropriate response, particularly of the church authorities in
Cloyne, to complaints and allegations of child sexual abuse.”
Also speaking in the Dáil this afternoon Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said the report's findings were unambiguous.
"We
cannot correct past wrongs perpetrated on our children, but we can take
action to prevent, insofar as is possible, the wrongs of the past being
perpetrated on our children in the future," he said.
"We cannot
depend on the undertakings of others to correct failings and introduce
robust and effective structures of protection. Cloyne irrefutably
confirms that some who, in the past, gave such undertakings acted in bad
faith," the Minister told the Dáil.
Earlier today, Mr Shatter
said comments made by Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi about the
Cloyne report were "somewhat unfortunate and disingenuous".
Making
his first extended comments on the implications of the report, Fr
Lombardi said yesterday there was nothing in the advice given by the
papal nuncio to Irish bishops which could be interpreted as an
invitation to cover up abuse cases.
Fr Lombardi said a
controversial letter from papal nuncio Luciano Storero in 1997 was
grossly misinterpreted following publication of the report last week.
Speaking
in favour of the all-party Oireachtas motion, Sinn Féin spokesman on
children Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said it was "high time" the church stopped
believing itself to be above the law.
He asked how many inquiries would
be needed before real action was taken on this "dreadful neglect".
Tánaiste
Eamon Gilmore last night ruled out expelling the current papal nuncio,
however.
A spokesman said the Government needed to ensure that
diplomatic channels remained open in order to communicate its views to
the Vatican and receive its response.
Mr Gilmore said the Government was
awaiting a formal response from the Vatican to the Cloyne report.
His
spokesman said: “While a deadline for a response was not set, the
Tánaiste has made it clear that if a response is not forthcoming in a
reasonable time frame, it will be followed up on.”