The Irish PM’s crusade againt the church – an attempt to cover up the Government’s own mistakes?

By J.C. von Krempach, J.D. | July 25, 2011

In the wake of a new report on the sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has in an unprecedented manner attacked the Vatican for having attempted “to frustrate an inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic”.

This grave but – as more careful readers of the Cloyne Report will find out) -completely unfounded accusation was accompanied by threats to break Ireland’s diplomatic ties with the Holy See and to introduce a law that would make it a crime for priests to withhold from the state authorities information that was given to them under the seal of confidentiality, including in sacramental confession. Much in the same vein, the Irish Government is currently pressing the Church to hand all church-run schools to the management of the State.

This begs the question: what precisely is the Vatican accused of? How did the Holy See “frustrate an inquiry” in Ireland? What has all this to do with the seal of confession?

The central “piece of evidence” appears to be a letter dating from 1996 in which the Roman Congregation for the Clergy warned Irish Bishops that a document on measures against child abuse they had drafted was at adds with fundamental canon law, so that actions taken on the basis of that document risked being invalidated under a canonic appeal.

But, as Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi pointed out: “there is absolutely nothing in the letter that is an invitation to disregard the laws of the country. In fact, it warned against the risk that measures were being taken which could later turn out to be questionable or invalid from the canonical point of view, thus defeating the purpose of the effective sanctions proposed by the Irish bishops.”

The measures proposed by the Irish bishops included mandatory reporting to the police of all allegations concerning child abuse, which was one of the points about which the Congregation of the Clergy seems to have been concerned. However, the secular laws of Ireland did not, and still do not, contain such an obligation. Mr. Kenny’s allegation that through this letter the Vatican “frustrated an inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic” is thus manifestly false. In reality, there was no such inquiry. In reality, the Vatican has in the meantime issued clear instructions that all domestic laws must be complied with. In reality, it is a shrill absurdity to interpret the Vatican’s letter as a call to disobey Irish laws. In reality, the Irish child abuse crisis is an Irish crisis rather than a Vatican crisis, involving not only Irish clergy but also Irish politicians.

As Vatican spokesman Fr. Lombardi mildly observed: “The severity of certain criticisms of the Vatican are curious, as if the Holy See was guilty of not having given merit under canon law to norms which a state did not consider necessary to give value under civil law.”

It is regrettable that rather than pulling its own act together, the Irish government now proposes measures that, while seeming inapt to provide, and indeed completely out of context with, any improvement in the protection of minors – but which, if adopted, would severely restrict religious freedom and thus violate Ireland’s international obligations with regard to Human Rights. The special rapporteur of the OSCE on the persecution of Christians, Massimo Introvigne, has already noted that not even the worst totalitarian regimes had ever adopted such legislation, and expressed his hope that, once the anger over the Cloyne Report has passed, the Irish Parliament will not even take these proposals into consideration.

As a reaction, to Mr. Kenny’s inappropriate rhetorics, the Holy See has recalled the nuncio to Ireland, Msgr. Leanza, for consultations.

I enclose a link to comments written by Fr. Vincent Twomey and Kevin Myers.

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