Lack of Vatican Cooperation on Sex Abuse Pushed Ireland to Close Embassy

While politicians in American continue to grovel disgustingly before the Roman Catholic bishops, a better model of how to deal with liars and hypocrites - not to mention in some case criminals - comes from Ireland. There, after government reports confirmed a systematic cover up of crimes against children and youths, the government closed its embassy to the Vatican. Why? Because the Vatican refused to cooperate with Irish authorities and it was documented that Pope Palpatine had ordered all case of abuse to be reported to him rather than to police authorities. It is far past time in America that all deference to the Catholic Church - and particularly members of the hierarchy - cease until all those involved in aiding and abetting child rapists are removed from office. The Irish Times looks at the complicity of the Vatican in the cover up of crimes against children. Here are highlights:

[T]here are the usual suspects, lay voices who make a living from defending the institutional church when it is safe to do so, when outrage is settling after the Cloyne report. It was the same after the Ferns, Ryan and Murphy reports. Their immediate reaction is practised horror. Then, with time, they’re back to their slithering ways, diluting truth, minimising the wreckage, playing it all down.

The central issue over Ireland and the Vatican has been Rome’s lack of co-operation with two inquiries set up by this State to investigate criminality – the systematic enabling and cover-up by Catholic Church authorities of the rape of Irish children over decades.

Their determination to hide the truth, through lies and mental reservation, rested on what was understood to be required in Rome. Then in May 2001 the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope) contacted every Catholic bishop in the world, including then archbishop of Dublin Desmond Connell and then bishop of Cloyne John Magee.

He directed them to send all clerical child sex abuse allegations “with a semblance of truth” to him. On foot of this and prior Vatican decisions the Murphy commission, which investigated abuse in Dublin, wrote to the congregation in September 2006 seeking co-operation. It got none.

Instead the Vatican complained to Dublin that the commission had not used proper channels, ie it had not gone through the Department of Foreign Affairs. As should have been known in Rome the Murphy commission could not use the Irish State’s “proper channels” as it was also investigating this State’s handling of allegations.

So, in February 2007 the commission wrote to the papal nuncio in Dublin asking for relevant documents. There was no reply. In early 2009 it again wrote to the nuncio, enclosing a draft of its report for comment. There was no reply.

During its later investigations into Cloyne diocese it also wrote to the nuncio. This time he responded to say he was “unable to assist”. That was how the Holy See treated two inquiries set up by our government to investigate the gravest of abuses of thousands of Irish children by priests. It ignored them. This had nothing to do with Catholicism but centrally involved inter-state relations. Because of it, and whatever may happen in the future, the decision to close the Irish embassy to the Holy See was appropriate and proportionate, regardless of the costs argument.

The Church hierarchy views itself to be above the law and for far too long, the civil authorities have allowed the Church to ignore the law. If the Church wants to intrude into political affairs and seek to limit the civil rights of citizens it dislikes, then it had better have been complying with the letter and spirit of the law. Until that happens, the whining and blathering of the bishops should be bluntly disregarded and ignored. Better yet, we need some government investigations into the sex abuse of children by Catholic clergy which has occurred all across America. Some bishops behind bars would be a most welcome development.