Vatican comments on debate over sex abuse in Ireland

(September 03.09.2011) Mgr Ettore Balestrero, Under-Secretary for Relations with States, met with Ms. Helena Keleher, Chargé d’Affaires, a.i. of the Embassy of Ireland to the Holy See, Saturday, and consigned to her the Holy See’s Response to the Irish Government on the issue of sexual abuse of minors by catholic clergy in Ireland.. The sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cloyne, Ireland, is a major chapter in the series of Catholic sex abuse cases in the United States and Ireland. It was the subject of a critical judicial inquiry led by Judge Yvonne Murphy, The Cloyne Report was published in July 2011. On 20 July 2011, Irish Prime Minister Taoiseach Enda Kenny addressed the report, summoning the Vatican Apostolic Nuncio in Ireland, sharply criticising the Vatican Head of the Holy See Press Office, Jesuit father Federico Lombardi, who speaking on a personal basis, had already said it was "somewhat strange to see the Vatican criticised so heavily". Regarding the 1997 letter that suggested that the 1996 bishops' child protection guidelines amounted only to a "study document", he added that "There is no motive to interpret the letter in the way it has been, as an attempt to cover up cases of abuse. There is nothing in the letter which suggests not respecting the laws of the land. The Cloyne diocese commented that the 11 priests considered abusive in recent decades worked among 415 priests about whom no complaints were made. The Vatican press office made public the latest Vatican answer to the civil authorities of Ireland, with the twenty page document in English dealing with the issue clearly and with documentation, handed over Saturday morning to Mrs Helena Keleher, ad interim charge d’affaires of Ireland with the Holy See.