A Facebook campaign to expel the Pope’s
representative out of Ireland in the wake of the Cloyne report is
already a huge success.
Over 5,000
people have joined the online call for the Irish government to take
serious action against the Papal Nuncio Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza.
Fine
Gael chairman Charlie Flanagan called on the government to take such
action in the immediate aftermath of the publication of the report into
child abuse in the Cork diocese of Cloyne.
“The
Vatican has broken the law in Ireland. If any other country conspired
with Irish citizens to break the law here, their ambassador would be
expelled,” said deputy Flanagan.
“The same standards should be applied to the Papal Nuncio who is the Vatican’s ambassador to Ireland. He should be expelled.”
Flanagan’s
call has been taken up by the Facebook campaign which condemns the
Church’s failure to report child abuse allegations in Cloyne to the
civil authorities.
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has also labeled the Vatican a disgrace over the failures in Cloyne.
Archbishop
Leanza, who met Kenny’s deputy Eamon Gilmore last week, is to bring a
copy of the damning Cloyne report to the Holy See.
But Facebook campaigners want him expelled as a punishment for the many failures of the clergy in Cloyne.
The
campaign’s Facebook page states: “If we are to take the reports’
findings seriously, we must expel the Papal Nuncio Archbishop Giuseppe
Leanza. We urge you to write to
ministers and TDs saying a message must be sent in the clearest of ways.
The Papal Nuncio past and present made deliberate decisions to
stonewall our country’s efforts to find the truth about child sex abuse
by the Catholic Church and to prevent its recurrence."
“He
did so in his official capacity as the ambassador of a foreign state,
the Vatican. The Irish State must now expel the Papal Nuncio.”