Letter to Irish Bishops Proves Vatican Put Secrecy Before Children’s Safety (continued)

“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 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
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/world/Ireland-Catholic-Abuse.pdf?ref=europe

Vatican warned Ireland's bishops not to report all child-abuse cases
By Associated Press in Patriot Ledger, Jan. 19, 2011
http://www.patriotledger.com/features/x104381625/
Vatican-warned-Irelands-bishops-not-to-report-all-child-abuse-cases

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, 2011
http://www.thetakeaway.org/2011/jan/19/vatican-letter-told-bishops-not-report-child-abuse/#

Is Vatican letter on abuse a 'smoking gun'?
By John Allen, National Catholic Reporter, Jan. 19, 2011
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/vatican-letter-abuse-smoking-gun?loc=interstitialskip

Vatican is always right -- or wrong -- on sex abuse
By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY, Jan. 19, 2011
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/
2011/01/sex-abuse-vatican-pope-irish/1

Vatican warned Irish bishops not to report abuse
By Associated Press, Jan. 18, 2011
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/
ALeqM5iQmg5wDhFHeRAzpFnG-UvSvb-oZA?docId=b6d56708925949a8a674a8a69d1e30a9

Vatican Warned Irish Bishops Not To Report Abuse
From National Public Radio, Jan. 18, 2011
http://www.npr.org/2011/01/18/133015611/vatican-warned-irish-bishops-not-to-report-abuse?ft=1&f=1016

Vatican Warned Bishops Not to Report Child Abuse
By Laurie Goodstein, New York Times, Jan. 18, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/19/world/europe/
19vatican.html?_r=2&hp

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, 2011
http://www.startribune.com/world/114105409.html

Vatican edict in 1997 rejected calls to report priests who abused
By Patsy McGarry, Irish Times, Jan. 17, 2011
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/
2011/0117/1224287680501.html

Child sex abuse and church failures 'great scandals'
By Patsy McGarry, Irish Times, Jan. 17, 2011
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/
2011/0117/1224287680509.html

Vatican asked Irish bishops not to report clerical abuse to the police
By Cathy Hayes, IrishCentral, Jan. 17, 2011
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Vatican-asked-Irish-bishops-not-to-report-clerical-abuse-to-the-police-113868834.html

Rome told bishops not to report abuse
By Lynne Kelleher and Stephen Rogers, Irish Examiner, Jan. 17, 2011
http://www.examiner.ie/ireland/rome-told-bishops-not-to-report-abuse-142338.html