Pope consistent on stopping abuse says nuncio to Ireland

(February 20, 2012) Pope Benedict XVI has been ``relentless and consistent'' in seeking to oust child abusers from the priesthood worldwide, the Vatican’s new Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland said on Sunday in his first homily in the capital Dublin. United States Archbishop Charles Brown was making his first public address since officially taking up his post as the papal nuncio on Feb. 17. “From the beginning, Pope Benedict was resolute and determined to put into place changes which would give the Church the ability to deal more effectively with those who abuse trust,” Archbishop Brown told worshippers and diplomatic guests at a service in Dublin's Pro-Cathedral. Ireland, a traditionally Catholic nation, has seen Mass attendance plummet in line with nearly two decades of pedophile-priest scandals. Last year Prime Minister Enda Kenny accused the Vatican of overseeing a cover-up culture that encouraged the rape of children. In his homily, Archbishop Brown stressed that the Vatican has have never obstructed Irish efforts to identify and punish the clerical and religious child abusers, saying Pope Benedict himself was scandalised and dismayed by them.
Later in 2011, Ireland closed its embassy to the Holy See saying it was purely a cost-cutting measure to ward off national bankruptcy and not in retaliation to the clerical child abuse. Diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Ireland however continue uninterrupted with the Irish ambassador to the Holy See now residing in Ireland and not any more in Rome. Meanwhile, Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin told reporters on Sunday he expected that Ireland and the Vatican would compromise on arrangements to open a new, cheaper Irish embassy in Rome on the same site as Ireland's Italian embassy.