Simplifying Scandal
IRELAND
Commonweal
The Editors
In July, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny delivered a stinging indictment of the Vatican’s handling of the sexual-abuse scandal in his country. Referring to a new report on the scandal in the Diocese of Cloyne, Kenny blasted what he called “the dysfunction, the disconnection, [and] the elitism that dominate the culture of the Vatican today.”
The Cloyne Report—the latest of four state inquiries into the crisis that has inflamed Irish Catholics—examines that diocese’s response to abuse allegations between January 1996, the year Irish bishops established procedures for dealing with abuse claims, and February 2009. It finds that two-thirds of allegations during that period were not forwarded to the police, in violation of the bishops’ own guidelines. It also charges that the Vatican gave “comfort and support” to bishops who chose not to inform civil authorities of accusations against priests.
On September 3, the Vatican issued its response to the controversy. Alas, instead of addressing the substance of the Cloyne report, the Holy See chose to focus on a few erroneous statements by Irish officials (which could have been avoided had Rome’s appointed representatives in Ireland seen fit to cooperate with officials putting together these reports) and to vigorously contest a motion, passed by Parliament one week after Kenny’s address, deploring “the Vatican’s intervention which contributed to the undermining of the child-protection framework and guidelines of the Irish state and the Irish bishops.”
Commonweal
The Editors
In July, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny delivered a stinging indictment of the Vatican’s handling of the sexual-abuse scandal in his country. Referring to a new report on the scandal in the Diocese of Cloyne, Kenny blasted what he called “the dysfunction, the disconnection, [and] the elitism that dominate the culture of the Vatican today.”
The Cloyne Report—the latest of four state inquiries into the crisis that has inflamed Irish Catholics—examines that diocese’s response to abuse allegations between January 1996, the year Irish bishops established procedures for dealing with abuse claims, and February 2009. It finds that two-thirds of allegations during that period were not forwarded to the police, in violation of the bishops’ own guidelines. It also charges that the Vatican gave “comfort and support” to bishops who chose not to inform civil authorities of accusations against priests.
On September 3, the Vatican issued its response to the controversy. Alas, instead of addressing the substance of the Cloyne report, the Holy See chose to focus on a few erroneous statements by Irish officials (which could have been avoided had Rome’s appointed representatives in Ireland seen fit to cooperate with officials putting together these reports) and to vigorously contest a motion, passed by Parliament one week after Kenny’s address, deploring “the Vatican’s intervention which contributed to the undermining of the child-protection framework and guidelines of the Irish state and the Irish bishops.”
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