The Vatican is this week being challenged to respond to criticisms laid at its door by Taoiseach Enda Kenny over the Cloyne report into clerical child abuse.
Speaking in the Dáil last week, the taoiseach referred to “the dysfunction, the disconnection, the elitism that dominates the Vatican today.”
The standoff between the Irish government and the Vatican hit a new low as the Vatican recalled its nuncio to Dublin, Archbishop Giusseppe Leanza, ahead of any formal statement over the report, which details child abuse by clerics in the County Cork diocese and the church’s subsequent failings with regard to victims.
Mr. Kenny unleashed his scathing attack on the Holy See during what many see as a historic Dáil speech that plunged relations between the Republic and the Vatican to an all-time low. Kenny’s speech is also seen as heralding a new chapter in the Dáil’s approach to the Catholic Church, which once wielded enormous political power in the country.
Meanwhile, the controversial move to introduce laws in Ireland which could force Catholic priests to reveal the “secrets” of the confessional box is still being proposed, despite a Vatican dismissal of the controversial plan.
The Vatican’s Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti responded to the plan by stating: “Ireland can approve all the laws it wants, but it should know the church will never allow itself the obligation to betray the confessional to civil authorities.”
Despite this rebuff, the Vatican is insisting that it is taking the revelations of the Cloyne report “seriously”, and implied the recalling of the papal nuncio proved this.
However, it also referred to the “excessive reactions” in the Dáil, stating on Monday: “Given the recall of a nuncio is a step rarely taken by the Holy See, this indicates the seriousness of the situation, as well as the willingness of the Holy See to confront it with objectivity and determination, notwithstanding a certain note of surprise and disappointment at some excessive reactions.”
As the papal nuncio made his way to Rome, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Eamon Gilmore, in what was perhaps a more conciliatory statement said: “The government is awaiting the response of the Holy See to the recent report on the Catholic Diocese of Cloyne, and it is expected that the Vatican would wish to consult in depth with the nuncio on its response.”
