Taoiseach Calls Vatican 'Disgraceful' After New Abuse Report

Another Irish government report on the Catholic Church's handling of child sex abuse allegations - the fourth to date - has led to renewed public anger after the revelation that certain priests and bishops were still not following child protection guidelines as recently as 2009.

Despite more than a decade of scandal, it emerged that the church's guarantees that it would voluntarily follow the strictest code of practice were not being honored in the rural diocese of Cloyne, Co. Cork.

The government has announced that it's putting child protection guidelines into law, and that the seal of confessional will no longer be an excuse for not reporting abuse claims.

In a tough new stance with the Vatican, Ireland's new government demanded a response from the Papal Nuncio in Ireland.

And Taoiseach Enda Kenny warned: "The law of the land should not be stopped by a collar or a crozier."

The Cloyne Report revealed that:

• Between 1996 and 2009, there were 15 cases which "clearly" should have been reported to the civil authorities, but nine of them were not.
• It said Bishop John Magee, who had primary responsibility, "took little or no active interest" in managing the cases until 2008, a full 12 years after the church's own guidelines were first published.
• Monsignor Denis O'Callaghan, the diocese's second in command, who handled abuse cases, did not personally agree with the guidelines drawn up by the church, and ignored them.
• The Vatican was "entirely unhelpful" to any bishop who wanted to implement the guidelines, and effectively strengthened the position of those opposed to the Irish church's policy.
• Bishop Magee wrongly told the government and HSE that the diocese was reporting all allegations to the authorities.
• Dr Magee deliberately misled people by creating two different accounts of what happened in one meeting with a priest accused of abuse. He wrote to the Vatican that the priest had admitted what he did, but in a letter to his own diocese, he wrote a fictitious version that included denials and protestations. Effectively, this meant civil authorities were left to try to find evidence themselves of the abuse even though Dr Magee had this evidence.

President McAleese said she was "gravely concerned" by the contents of the report and said that leadership of the Catholic Church in Ireland needed to reflect on how it could rebuild trust.

Foreign Affairs Minister and Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore went further and called the Vatican's representative in Ireland, Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, to a meeting at his office.

Gilmore said the Vatican's intervention in Irish affairs was "absolutely unacceptable" and "inappropriate".

"I want to know why this State (Vatican), with which we have diplomatic relations, issued a communication, the effect of which was that very serious matters of the abuse of children in this country were not reported to the authorities," he said.

Mr Gilmore said the Vatican had conveyed the message that it was alright to evade responsibility for reporting abuse allegations to the Irish authorities.

"What happened here should not have happened," Gilmore said, "What happened here was a totally inappropriate, unjustified and unacceptable intervention by the Vatican in the reporting arrangements, even within the context of the arrangements of the church itself."

"They conveyed a message to priests which may have led them to believe that they could in conscience not report matters to the authorities."

After the meeting in Dublin, Archbishop Leanza said he would bring a copy of the report to the attention of the Holy See.

"I am very distressed myself again by the failures in assuring the protection of children within the church despite all the good work that has been done," he said.

The Vatican, despite repeated contacts from media around the world, has so far had no official comment on the Cloyne report.

In the wake of the report's publication, the hardline approach being adopted by the new government was clear, and in contrast to the previous government's reluctance to criticize the Vatican directly.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny warned that the government's new laws on child protection could not be stopped by canon law.

"I think this is absolutely disgraceful that the Vatican took the view that it did in respect of something that's as sensitive and as personal with such long-lasting difficulties for persons involved," Kenny said, "The law of the land should not be stopped by a collar or a crozier."

On Friday, the government announced new laws which make it a criminal offence punishable by fines or up to five years in jail, to withhold information relating to sexual abuse or other cases.

"Let me declare that the days of voluntary compliance are over when it comes to child protection," said Children's Minister Frances Fitzgerald.

She insisted that the privacy of the confession box cannot be used anymore as an excuse not to report abuse allegations.

"If there is a law in the land, it has to be followed by everybody. There are no exceptions, there are no exemptions," she said.

"I'm not concerned, and neither is the Government, about the internal laws or rules governing anybody."

The new stance puts them on a collision course with the Catholic Church which views the seal of confession as sacrosanct.

A spokesman for the Catholic bishops said the "seal of confession places an onerous responsibility on the confessor/priest, and a breach of it would be a serious offence to the rights of penitents."

The Cloyne Report is the fourth major investigation by government-appointed High Court judges into clerical child abuse scandals since 2003.

They've all revealed widespread abuse and a failure to respond adequately by priests and bishops to whom the abuse was known.

The bishop at the center of the Cloyne Report, John Magee, is a high profile figure within the global Catholic Church after serving as personal secretary in Rome to three different popes.

Bishop Magee stepped down as administrator of the diocese in March 2009, a few months after the church's internal watchdog flagged problems in Cloyne.

The renewed anger evoked by the publication of the Cloyne report has led to speculation that a papal visit rumored for next summer will now be shelved.