TÁNAISTE'S REACTION:TÁNAISTE EAMON Gilmore said the response from the Holy See to the Cloyne report went "a stage" towards repairing relations with the Catholic Church, but the Vatican still needed to understand the anger of the Irish people regarding the abuse scandals.
Taking issue with the report’s tone, Mr Gilmore said it failed to reflect the unique position the church had enjoyed in Irish society. He recognised the Vatican had apologised and expressed shame over child abuse by clerics.
"You've seen the terms in which it's expressed where they say that they are sorry and ashamed for what has happened," he told The Irish Times. This had to be acknowledged as a response to the anger felt in Ireland, he said. He noted "various other indications" of the seriousness with which the Vatican viewed "appalling" evidence of abuse in the diocese of Cloyne and elsewhere.
Asked whether the report would improve Ireland’s relations with the Vatican, he said the level of anger felt at the church meant more time would be required. “It moves things on a stage but it will take time,” he said.
Mr Gilmore, at an EU meeting in Poland on Saturday, said the public was more concerned about the welfare of children than the status of church documents.
He remained of the view that a 1997 letter from the then papal nuncio provided a pretext for some in the church to avoid full co-operation with civil authorities.
Issues about the status of documents should not be allowed to obscure the obligation of people in a position of responsibility to deal promptly with such abuse, he said.
“I felt that there were aspects of the statement that were highly technical, highly legalistic, very much dancing on the head of a pin about the status of documents, when the issue that concerns the Government and I think the public in Ireland is the welfare of children,” he said.
Mr Gilmore said the document read like the response of an organisation that had “at best some kind of a tenuous connection” with the State. This did not take account of the church’s “very special and privileged place” in Irish society.
The Tánaiste noted the Vatican said it wanted to engage in constructive discussion with the State. “I will certainly do that at a formal level but I also think that those discussions need also to be conducted at a more public level,” he said.