THE PAPAL Nuncio in Ireland has denied suggestions that he showed contempt for the institutions of the State by not responding to the Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin.
In his first public comments since the publication of the commission report last week, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza told The Irish Timesthat his actions "cannot be taken as such because it is not a contempt against the work of the commission, which we respect".
Dr Leanza said he was aware of the anger among Irish Catholics about the contents of the report, which found that successive archbishops had responded to clerical child sex abuse within the diocese with “denial, arrogance and cover-up”.
He added: “Do I understand the reaction of the people? Absolutely. We are really very sorry for what has happened. This should never happen again in the future.”
Pope Benedict XVI was aware of the commission report, he said, and he too “absolutely” shared the revulsion of the public about its findings. “He [the pope] has utterly condemned the child abuse – first of all for Ireland during a meeting with the bishops of Ireland in 2006, and again the holy father has condemned child abuse when he was in the United States and Australia and on other occasions,” he said.
Dr Leanza has been strongly criticised for his failure to respond to an extract from a draft report of the commission findings which was sent to him earlier this year.
He said he did not respond to the commission because he was asked for comments on extracts which related to a time before he took over as papal nuncio in April 2008. “Since the document was about 1975 to 2004, I was not in a position to comment on proceedings,” he said.
In September 2006, the commission wrote to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith seeking information on reports of clerical child sex abuse sent to it by the Dublin archdiocese over the relevant 30-year period. It also sought information on the document Crimen Sollicitationis, which deals with clerical sex abuse. It did not reply.
Instead, it contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs, stating that the commission had not gone through appropriate diplomatic channels. As a body independent of Government, the commission said it did not consider it appropriate to use diplomatic channels.
In February 2007, the commission wrote to the then papal nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Lanzzarotto, in Dublin, asking that he forward all documents relevant to it and which had not been or were not produced by the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin. It also requested that the nuncio confirm if he had no such documents.
Earlier this year the commission again wrote to Dr Leanza, enclosing extracts from its draft report which referred to him and his office, as it was required to do. He did not respond.
In June 2001, every diocesan bishop in the Catholic Church was written to, in Latin, by the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict. They were instructed that, where complaints of clerical child sex abuse were concerned, these were first to be referred to Rome and it would decide how they were to be dealt with.
The Congregation document was accompanied by a letter, also in Latin, stipulating that the instruction was to be kept secret.
Dr Leanza said yesterday that diplomatic protocols meant the Congregation, which is the Vatican’s internal doctrinal watchdog, could not respond to requests for information because the commission was independent of Government and only government institutions can respond to each other. A response would have come had the request come directly from the Government, he said.
Dr Leanza said the findings of the commission had brought “shame” on the Catholic Church.
“I think the church has learned really a big lesson from what happened,” he said.
Last night, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern, speaking in Brussels, said non-co-operation by church authorities was not acceptable.
“I would not agree with non-co-operation by anyone. This was set up by the State and lack of co-operation by the church I do not think is something that is or was correct,” he said.
“Thankfully there is co-operation now but I do not think the stance of the Vatican was proper, they should have responded to requests for information.”