Irish Times Slams Vatican Rebuke to Ireland

I wrote last week about the Vatican's disingenuous rebuke to the government of Ireland for its on point and honest language in terms of the Vatican's culpability in the still exploding sexual abuse scandal in a country that once was considered a bastion of Catholicism. The Vatican sharply denied that it had discretely advised bishops that they could ignore sex abuse reporting requirements and tried to feign ignorance of the musical chairs like policies of reappointing predator priests to one unsuspecting parish after another. Both the head of Ireland's labor party and the Irish Times have defended the governments labeling of Vatican culpability and fired back additional salvos at Rome. The Vatican continues to see itself as above the law and hopefully Rome's unbelievable arrogance will convince still more Irish Catholics to vote with their feet and leave the Church. Here are highlights from the Irish Times main editorial:

THE VATICAN in its statement responding to criticism from the Taoiseach acknowledges the “anger, confusion and sadness” of the faithful in Ireland. Unfortunately, its statement shows that it is still struggling to engage with those feelings. There are a few points of detail on which the Vatican’s response is convincing.

Irish Catholics, and citizens in general, had a right to expect much more from an institution that sets itself up as the ultimate arbiter of spiritual and moral truth than some effective debating points. The most notable aspect of the Vatican statement is what it does not contain – any substantial reflection on the Cloyne report itself. While declaring itself “sorry and ashamed” for the suffering of victims, it expresses neither sorrow nor shame for the systematic covering up of abuse by church authorities.

There is no sense in the document of the moral urgency of ending, once and for all, a corrupt culture of placing the interests of the church as an institution before the welfare of children. In this regard, the Vatican’s statement is more a manifestation of the problem than a response to it.

It is hard to avoid the sense that the Vatican is still more concerned with avoiding any admission of legal responsibility than with the anger, confusion and sadness of the faithful. To a moral and spiritual crisis, it has given only a bureaucratic, self-serving and legalistic response.

As for the reaction of the Labor Party to the Vatican's dissembling response, here are highlights from another Irish Times article:

Speaking while attending a Labour parliamentary party meeting in Co Carlow, Eamon Gilmore said the real issue was the Catholic Church did not deal effectively with paedophile priests.

“There was the most horrific sexual abuse of children perpetrated by clerics. The Catholic Church did not deal with that as it should have dealt with it. Let’s not be distracted. Let’s not miss the point - no less charges were made. The Taoiseach and the Government stand over what was said,” the Minister for Foreign Affairs said.

The Government is to discuss the Vatican’s weekend response to the Cloyne report at its Cabinet meeting this week, although there was no indication yesterday it was backing down on its criticism of the Holy See.

“There was the most horrific sexual abuse of children perpetrated by clerics. The Catholic Church did not deal with that as it should have dealt with it. Let’s not be distracted. Let’s not miss the point - no less charges were made. The Taoiseach and the Government stand over what was said,” the Minister for Foreign Affairs said.

The Government is to discuss the Vatican’s weekend response to the Cloyne report at its Cabinet meeting this week, although there was no indication yesterday it was backing down on its criticism of the Holy See.

Mr Gilmore today said the Government was not going to be dragged into a prolonged semantic debate over the use of language. “As a Government we are entitled to and we will stand by the people who are victims in those cases, their families and we will ensure that that kind of abuse will not happen again,” the Tánaiste said.

Mr Gilmore said the Government was determined to press ahead with tough new child protection measures, including making it an offence to withhold information about crimes against children and introducing new vetting to allow “soft information” transfers.

I continue to believe that the only way to force the Vatican to clean its cesspool like hierarchy is for civil governments to start imprisoning bishops and cardinals implicated in knowingly abetting and covering up for predator priest.