VATICAN BRIEFING:SENIOR VATICAN spokesman Federico Lombardi got his retaliation in first. Asked for a reflection on Pope Benedict's "Pastoral Letter To The Catholics Of Ireland", he was quick to both pre-empt criticism and defend the pope, underlining the "unprecedented" nature of the letter.
Facing the massed ranks of the world’s press in the Vatican press office on Saturday, he disagreed with those who argued that the Holy See continues to underestimate the entire clerical sex abuse problem.
“Frankly, this does not seem such a small response to me . . . There has never been a letter like this from the pope, this is a response that should not be underestimated . . .
“This letter offers a profound understanding of the suffering of the victims.
“The pope humbly asks you to read this letter and to try to understand what he wants to say to you in the hope that this contributes to healing, that it is one important step in a long process,” he added.
Asked by The Irish Timesto explain the logic of writing a letter exclusively to the Irish at a moment when the worldwide Catholic Church is being rocked by revelations of clerical child abuse, Fr Lombardi said: "Clearly, the problem is one that is beginning to manifest itself in other countries but at the same time, Ireland is a very specific case, there have been the Ryan and Murphy reports, the Irish bishops have met with the pope, there has been the clear admission of the bishops' responsibility for the very poor handling of the problem in the past.
“For months now, the pope has been thinking of this type of help in confronting the situation with a view to healing, renewal and reparation . . . You cannot expect the pope to talk about everything in every document,” he said.
Also asked by The Irish Timesas to why paragraph 11, "To My Brother Bishops", makes no reference to eventual proceedings against, or the resignation of bishops who are adjudged to have mishandled cases of paedophile priests, Fr Lombardi said: "As for resignations, it is clear that this is a pastoral letter for the Irish not a document about administrative or juridical measures and therefore it does not deal with the question of the bishops [resign- ations] . . . that's a matter for another context and for the pope and the Congregation Of Bishops"
Asked if the Archbishop of Armagh, Cardinal Seán Brady, might draw some comfort from the document because it does not specifically condemn bishops who failed to report sex abuse cases to the police, Fr Lombardi answered: “I am not qualified to answer you on specific cases, be they in Ireland or in Germany or anywhere . . . A letter like this, addressed to all the Irish faithful, cannot enter into the precise details of a specific case, nor could the letter be expected to deal with technical, bureaucratic or juridical issues . . .”
Fr Lombardi also offered a vigorous defence of the pope’s historic role as head of the Congregation For The Doctrine Of The Faith (CDF), denying that Pope Benedict had been responsible for creating a culture of silence about clerical sex abuse, saying: “Whoever knows the situation well, I think, would see the pope as a witness to the search for coherence and clarity.
“All his time at the CDF was not a period of cover-up when these questions were hidden about but rather a time of ever more decisive commitment to clarification and intervention.”