Letter Proves Vatican Put Secrecy Before Children s Safety

Transcription

1 January 20, 2011 In the Vineyard News from National Letter Proves Vatican Put Secrecy Before Children s Safety A newly public 1997 Vatican letter documents Vatican intervention in local church affairs to prevent mandatory reporting of abuse cases to civil authorities in guidelines the bishops drafted. The document surfaced as part of an Irish public television documentary that aired Jan. 17. In responding to guidelines developed in 1996 by Ireland s bishops, the letter s author stated that the situation of mandatory reporting gives rise to serious reservations of both a moral and a canonical nature. The letter is signed by the Vatican s then-representative in Ireland, Archbishop Luciano Storero, and orders the Irish bishops to see that the procedures established by the Code of Canon Law are meticulously followed. This letter, in effect, directs the Irish bishops not to report clergy sexual abuse to civil authorities, but to dispose of sexual abuse cases in secret proceedings inside the Catholic Church. The Vatican has always claimed that the church s response to the abuse crisis was not dictated from Rome, said VOTF president Dan Bartley. In the case of Ireland, this letter proves otherwise. In how many other local cases did the Vatican intervene to put secrecy before the safety of children? VOTF believes this letter prevented the appropriate action the Irish bishops wanted to take in response to the scandal within their church. VOTF calls on the Vatican to disclose fully all other instances of Vatican interference in local church affairs around the world. In a New York Times story following the letter s publication, Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said this letter is not new and that, They ve known about it in Ireland for some time. Colm Gorman, a victim of abuse in Ireland, contradicted Lombardi, saying the letter was not known until its disclosure on Monday (Jan. 17) by RTE. VOTF maintains that the Church s credibility will remain severely damaged unless the Vatican admits to what has been done in the past. The clergy sexual abuse scandal arose and was abetted not just by many thousands of individual priests, religious and others working for the Church who committed heinous crimes, but also by a Church hierarchy that has sought to protect its public

2 image by enforcing a de facto policy of secrecy under the guise of adhering to canonical procedures. In the RTE documentary, Unspeakable Crimes, reporter Mike Peelo said the letter reveals how not only did the Vatican secretly block the bishop's efforts to improve child protection and bring abuser priests to justice, but were every bit as inept in their own handling of abuse. RTE also interviewed VOTF Ireland member and abuse survivor Bryan Maguire and other survivors. As recently as this past November, VOTF communicated with Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, subsequent to the cardinal s statement that new guidelines for handling of clergy sexual abuse cases were being developed by his congregation. In its letter to the cardinal, VOTF called for: Timely lay involvement in developing these guidelines; Independent oversight of abuse cases; and Mandatory reporting of accused clergy in non-totalitarian states. To date, VOTF has received no reply from Cardinal Levada. VOTF maintains that the Church cannot begin to recover from this scandal until every member of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church is held accountable for his role in the mismanagement of abusers. Link to actual Vatican letter Abuse.pdf?ref=europe Vatican warned Ireland's bishops not to report all child-abuse cases By Associated Press in Patriot Ledger, Jan. 19, Vatican Letter Told Bishops Not to Report Child Abuse The TAKEAWAY, WNYC Radio and Public Radio International, in collaboration with The BBC World Service and WGBH Boston, Jan. 19, Is Vatican letter on abuse a 'smoking gun'? By John Allen, National Catholic Reporter, Jan. 19, Vatican is always right -- or wrong -- on sex abuse By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY, Jan. 19, Vatican warned Irish bishops not to report abuse By Associated Press, Jan. 18, 2011

3 G-UvSvb-oZA?docId=b6d a8a674a8a69d1e30a9 Vatican Warned Irish Bishops Not To Report Abuse From National Public Radio, Jan. 18, Vatican Warned Bishops Not to Report Child Abuse By Laurie Goodstein, New York Times, Jan. 18, Vatican letter: Irish bishops were warned in '97 not to report all child-abuse cases to police By Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press in Star Tribune, Jan. 18, Vatican edict in 1997 rejected calls to report priests who abused By Patsy McGarry, Irish Times, Jan. 17, ml Child sex abuse and church failures 'great scandals' By Patsy McGarry, Irish Times, Jan. 17, ml Vatican asked Irish bishops not to report clerical abuse to the police By Cathy Hayes, IrishCentral, Jan. 17, Rome told bishops not to report abuse By Lynne Kelleher and Stephen Rogers, Irish Examiner, Jan. 17, html Did You Know? Vatican II was the only ecumenical council ever to use electricity. Or telephones. We may forget or perhaps never appreciated how vastly separated from the modern world were the Councils of the past. It s no wonder Pope John XXIII saw a need to renew the Church. As we advance towards the 50th anniversary of the first session of the second Vatican Council, we will bring you reminders of its significance. Check future issues of In the Vineyard for additional notes and for news about upcoming projects.

4 News from Ireland Vatican role in Cover-Up of Clergy Abuse Condemned VOTF Ireland distributed the following press release upon news of the 1997 letter from the papal nuncio to the Irish bishops. Voice of the Faithful Ireland is stunned by the revelation in Monday s 'Would You Believe' programme on RTÉ 1 TV that the Vatican intervened directly to thwart the efforts of the Irish bishops to stamp out clerical sex abuse in the 1990s. This revelation undermines Pope Benedict s assertion in his pastoral letter last March that responsibility for the often inadequate response to the offences lies with the Irish ecclesiastical authorities. Sexual abuse has proven to be widespread among the Catholic clergy in many countries and the response of the bishops in country after country has been to deny and minimise the problem while seeking to shield those credibly accused of offences from civil authorities. The letter shown in Mick Peelo s documentary demonstrates that these reactions were orchestrated by Rome. VOTF agrees with the Pope that, only by examining carefully the many elements that gave rise to the present crisis can a clear-sighted diagnosis of its causes be undertaken and effective remedies be found (Pope Benedict XVI, Pastoral Letter). In our open letter to the Pope 12 months ago we called on him to institute a thorough church-wide inquiry into all aspects of the clerical child abuse catastrophe, including the reasons why so many bishops endangered so many children by their failure to act decisively against sexual predators. He has not done this. Neither did the discussion among the Cardinals at last November s consistory give rise to any progress on examining the many elements beyond those already offered by the Pope and his circle focussing on the failings of individual offenders and bishops reluctance to apply existing church law. Until the Pope and his advisors go further in identifying the global causes we cannot accept that they are serious about trying to root out this problem and bring about the healing, renewal and reparation Pope Benedict spoke about in his pastoral. To watch excerpts of Would You Believe link here Guest Column The following article appeared in the Irish News Belfast, Jan 13th, 2011 Is Unaccountable Leadership Worthy of the Public s Respect?

5 As the Apostolic Visitation to Armagh ordered by Pope Benedict XVI begins, Sean O Conaill wonders if it will examine why it took state inquiries to expose deep problems within the Church It can be a fascinating exercise to trace the remote origins of current events, and this is especially true of the ongoing apostolic visitation, headed in Ulster by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor. At first sight the cause of this visitation is recent and obvious. In his pastoral letter of March of last year Pope Benedict XVI promised such a visit to assist the local Church on her path of renewal, However, that pastoral letter was itself an unprecedented event, originating in the greatest public relations disaster the Catholic church has ever suffered in Ireland. That disaster climaxed in 2009 with what are now known as the Ryan and Murphy reports the results of exhaustive Irish state inquiries into the criminal abuse of children by Catholic clergy in recent times. The detail of those reports shocked us all to the core. Certainly the Irish church is in need of renewal, but it is far less certain that this visitation can begin that process. The central question crying out for an answer by all Catholic churchmen is why it required two Irish state inquiries to identify and describe such deep seated problems within the church. Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor will leave Ireland under-informed if he does not hear that many of us are asking this question and asking also why he and his brother cardinals show so far no inclination to address it. Renewal of the Irish church, and of the western church generally is already being seriously delayed by the total failure of the Catholic church hierarchy to recognize the biggest elephant in the living room: Our church is no longer selfregulating. It obviously now requires secular state supervision and media vigilance to discipline errant bishops who have shown themselves totally incapable of investigating and disciplining one another. The reason for this is very simple. Since the 18th century no pope has done what the brightest of earlier popes knew they were obliged to do to take notice of advances in the understanding of administration and government in the secular world, and to adapt these to the church's own needs. In particular, modern popes have ignored a principle that is now part of the basic wisdom of secular administration: to ensure that no individual is unaccountable, no individual should exercise undivided power. That principle was observed in the Roman republic of ancient times. It was overthrown to the detriment of Rome in Caesarian and imperial times. It

6 languished in the Middle Ages, but reappeared in the 18th century when it became known as the principle of the separation of powers. It was most influentially propagated then by the French intellectual the Baron de Montesquieu, whose most brilliant works were placed on the Roman index in Ironically they were avidly read in colonial America, and the principle of the separation of powers became the bedrock of the US constitution in The irony lies in the fact that it was in the U.S. in the 1980s that the revelation began of the universal policy of concealment of clerical child sex abuse by Catholic bishops. To this day lawyers defending the papacy from litigation in U.S. courts have been unable to point to a single instance of a Catholic bishop initiating a criminal investigation of a clerical abuser. In all cases, perpetrators were first outed by victims who took advantage of the fact that US secular courts were not under church control. There is a further irony. To the extent that Catholic children are now better protected from clerical predators, this is also entirely due to the secular principle of the separation of powers. In Ireland as in the U.S. and the U.K., the Catholic hierarchy implemented no child-safeguarding measures until after the phenomenon of clerical child sex abuse had been revealed by secular processes. The Irish hierarchy actually sought insurance protection from liability for injury caused by clerical sexual abuse in 1987 a full eight years before they produced the first set of child protection guidelines in And it was obviously the public revelation of the activities of Brendan Smyth in 1994 that finally precipitated these. To this day there has been no acknowledgement or explanation of this astonishing and appalling sequence. Nor has there been any acknowledgement that the ongoing visitation was precipitated also by the superiority of secular institutions. The papal pastoral letter of March 2010 even partially attributed the abuse disaster to the secularization of Irish society without once mentioning that Catholic children were now safer because of events that had begun in secular courts. There was no mention whatsoever of a fact that every educated person in Ireland now knows: that the leadership of the church still operates a system of church government that did nothing to protect Catholic children until secular revelations left it no alternative. Without an acknowledgement of this kind, the visitation seems short of both honesty and credibility. How especially can the families of victims believe that these visiting bishops have some exalted expertise in child protection, when not one of them has had the candor and courage to acknowledge that Catholic bishops did not begin to prioritize child safety until secular processes had revealed that everywhere those bishops were doing the very opposite?

7 And how can Irish Catholics generally respect leaders who maintain without question the same archaic, self-indulgent and unaccountable system of church government that has brought us global disgrace? Sean O Conaill is a retired teacher of history and a commentator on the secular challenge to Christianity. He is a member of Voice of the Faithful Ireland. Site Seeing Another Vatican-approved group gone astray? What authority do the Bishops have? The Phoenix hospital case raises questions. Bishops won t support repeal of healthcare law. Affiliate News News from Suzanne Severson of Twin Cities VOTF Jack Manley, long-time VOTF advocate and founding member of Twin Cities VOTF, passed away December 22nd after a long illness. Jack was the Chair of the Goal 1 Working Group for many years, advocating for survivors. He was instrumental in working to include advocacy for family members of survivors in our work. Our sympathies go out to his wife Sheila and their family. News from Yakima VOTF On January 22, the Yakima affiliate of VOTF will hold a prayer vigil for survivors and victims of sex abuse in the Catholic Church, to be held outside diocesan offices. Participants will be praying a traditional Stations of the Cross, at each station reading a brief story of a child abused by a priest or religious. They have asked VOTF members nationwide to support them in their efforts. We are privileged to pray with the Yakima VOTF members for the release of the names of all clergy and lay personnel with credible allegations of abuse,

8 including the pastor removed in 1997 for abusing two brothers, and to call for the establishment of a safe house for clergy who are a risk to children and vulnerable adults. If you wish to stand with them in vigil in your local area, you may choose to use the same format as Yakima, using stories of local victims and survivors. An alternative is to use the Stations for Victims & Survivors available on our web pages at In addition to praying for the Yakima initiative, we offer below the Prayer for Victims & Survivors that is being prayed by our Spiritual & Communal Growth online intercessory prayer group. Please stand in solidarity with us as we pray: Jesus, by becoming human you have elevated the human body to the dignity of divinity. Sadly, there are among us those whose bodies have been savaged by the very ones who have been called to serve and protect them. These crimes cry out for justice and for healing, and we raise our voices in prayer for the healing of our brothers and sisters. We acknowledge that by our silence and our blindness we are complicit in these crimes and sins, and we ask for forgiveness. Lord Jesus, during your life on earth you were known as a healer of bodies, minds and spirits. Send your healing Spirit upon these brothers and sisters of ours that they may begin to experience some light, peace and joy in this life. Pour your Spirit of peace into the hearts of their families - parents, brothers and sisters, spouses and children - that they may recover a sense of your presence in their lives. And make us all more sensitive to the need to protect our children from those who might harm them that your Body here on earth may be made whole to the glory of God. Amen. Calendar Laughter is more important than ever Join VOTF of Southwest Florida as it opens its Annual Speakers Forum with the Wit and Wisdom of Carol O Flaherty: Nurse, humorist and member of the Association for applied Therapeutic Humorists. Jan 27, 2011 at 7pm Vanderbilt Presbyterian 1225 Piper Blvd, Naples Also, mark your calendar! Jason Berry will address VOTF of SWFL on February 10 and Tom Doyle will speak on February 28.

9 For more info call VOTF of SWFL