Irish Parliament's Condemnation of Vatican Brings Messages of Support

Last week by a unanimous vote the Irish Parliament condemned the Vatican for its directive that basically told Ireland's bishops that they could ignore requirements that possible instances of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy be reported to police authority. In addition, Ireland's Prime Minister directly condemned the Vatican and said that a new day was dawning and that the laws of the Irish republic would prevail over the Vatican. All pretty unbelievable stuff in a country once viewed as a bastion of Catholicism and a next exporter of priests to countries all around the world. Now, as the Irish Times reports, Prime Minister Kenny has said that he has received “thousands” of supportive messages from around the world in response to his speech on the Vatican’s role in the cover up of sexual crimes against children and youths. Moreover columns in Ireland and elsewhere are championing the Irish parliament's condemnation of the Vatican. Indeed, some editorials have taken the position that Ireland's decision to stand up to the Catholic Church should be the new model for government dealings with the Church. The irony is that the Vatican chose to cover up abuse with a goal of protecting the Church's image. The result - especially in Ireland - has been the exact opposite with the Church more or less in a death spiral of shame and irrelevance. Perhaps there is a God after all. Here are highlights from the Irish Times on messages of support flowing to the Irish prime minister:
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TAOISEACH ENDA Kenny has received “thousands” of messages from around the world in response to his speech on the Vatican’s role in events relating to the issue of child abuse, he said last night.
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This reflected the way people felt about this issue, he told the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal. Mr Kenny added he was “astounded” by the number of clergy who had been in touch to say it was “about time” someone in his position spoke out.
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The Taoiseach received a standing ovation when he finished delivering the annual lecture in honour of Nobel laureate and former SDLP leader John Hume at the opening session of the summer School.
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“The fact that I have had thousands of messages from around the world speaks for itself about the impact and the way people feel. “The numbers of members of the clergy who have been in touch in the last few days, to say it is about time somebody spoke out about these matters in a situation like you are, has astounded me. “I haven’t made any other comment except to say that we await the response from the Vatican.
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A column in the Independent in Ireland likewise lauded Parliament's action and argued that the Irish republic needed to defeat the Church in the effort to punish sexual predators and those who aided and abetted them. Here are highlights:
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THERE are battles yet to be fought in the war between the Catholic Church and the Irish State. But the outcome is no longer in doubt. The Church will lose, if it has not already lost. Which is not necessarily to say that Irish society has won, or will win.
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This war was unwise and unnecessary: unwise in the extreme on the part of the church, which started it and promoted it. It behaved as if its relationship with Ireland had not changed since the days when our politicians abased themselves before the Holy See, declaring themselves -- in the notorious words of Brendan Corish -- Catholics first and Irishmen after.
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The sex abuse scandals which he [Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin] inherited were not about sex. They were about power. They were about protecting an institution whose rights took precedence over the protection of the young, over every precept of common decency, ultimately over the law of the land.
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And the guilty parties were not confined to the abusers. They included those who covered up the crimes, for whatever reason, and somehow reconciled their actions with their consciences.
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That confrontation, long postponed, took place this week, openly and sensationally. Irish politicians, once noted for their servility, directly defied and attacked the Vatican. There were calls for the breaking off of diplomatic relations and the expulsion of the Papal Nuncio.
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Just for once, our parliament did not shrink from confrontation when the chips were down. Just for once, our leaders offered some leadership. We can follow the way they have shown.
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On this side of the Atlantic, the Ottawa Citizen takes the position that Ireland's new found confrontational style with the Vatican should be the model for other nations as well . Personally, I am in full agreement with this approach. All of the deference and special privileges afforded to the Catholic Church need to end. The institution has shown itself to be morally bankrupt and undeserving of any respect and the time has come when the Church needs to reap the fruits that it has sown. Here are editorial highlights:
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Good for Ireland. The traditionally Catholic country - still (wrongly) viewed in cliché as a devout nation of unquestioning churchgoers - has finally had it with empty words and vacuous apologies.
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This week, in a unanimous parliamentary denunciation, Irish lawmakers blamed the Vatican for encouraging Irish bishops to not report suspected abusive priests to the police - thus defying Irish law and permitting the victimization to continue.
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This is not a reference to ancient history, either. It was in 1996 that Irish bishops decided calling the cops on priestly abusers might be the right thing to do. And, it turns out, it was in 1996 that Rome nixed that notion.
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Let the example of tiny Ireland be an international model. No nation that reveres justice and the rule of law should be intimidated by religious institutions, no matter how ancient or influential, if those institutions have been criminally implicated.
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Like Ireland, no nation should shy away from telling harsh truths about an institutional culture that, on this file, has turned all the forces of its labyrinthine secrecy to self-protection - at the expense of justice, morality and countless destroyed human lives.
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In the end, though, it is institutional Rome's deeply embedded self-interest, its stubborn reluctance to take genuine action to end the abuse of children - action, as opposed to the breast-beating rhetoric of which Benedict is so enamored - that all moral people must condemn. . . . Ireland's blunt stand this week for the greater good should be applauded.
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The Church hierarchy in its current form needs to be eliminated from Benedict XVI on down with a wholesale replacement of those who have shown complete indifference to the safety and welfare of children and youths. For the Catholic laity it will be a tsunami like experience. But without it, the laity will remain little more than accessories to sexual crimes against children.