The latest report on the abuse scandal in Ireland – this one centered on the diocese of Cloyne – is provoking an unprecedented political pushback. Not so long ago, legislation needed the imprimatur of Dublin archbishop John Charles McQuaid and the de Valera state stood in the nervous shadow of Rome. The difference today could not be more dramatic.
The report concludes that Bishop Magee (John Paul II’s one-time secretary) was not implementing guidelines as late as 2008, and indeed had provided misleading and untruthful information. He claimed falsely that the diocese was complying with the church’s abuse guidelines and that allegations of abuse were being reported to the authorities. His vicar general, Monsignor Denis O’Callaghan was found to have deliberately stymied the implementation of child protection policy. And the Vatican was found to have given no encouragement whatsoever for Irish Church officials to comply with the policy. Indeed, the Vatican complained about “dispositions which appear contrary to canonical discipline”, especially the mandatory reporting which “gives rise to serious reservations of both a moral and a canonical nature.’ ” The papal nuncio refused comment.
The political response was swift. The Taoiseach (prime minister), Enda Kenny, called the Vatican “disgraceful”, claiming that “the law of the land should not be stopped by a collar or a crozier”. Kenny belongs to the right-leaning Fine Gael party. The Tainiste (deputy prime minister) – Eamon Gilmore from the Labour Party – said the Vatican’s intervention in Irish affairs was “absolutely unacceptable” and “inappropriate”. The chairman of the Fine Gael party called for the papal nuncio to be expelled from Ireland. And opposition leader Micheal Martin of Fianna Fail (de Valera’s modern-day standard-bearer) said that bishop Magee should be prosecuted and face the potential of jail time.
The Church is fading in Ireland. Some of it relates to secularism, and there is no quick-fix that Rome can come up with to stop the hemorrhaging. But most of the anger and anti-Church bitterness in Ireland reflects the abuse crisis. This is directly in the Vatican’s power to address. But it won’t. Benedict is doing a fantastic job in intellectually engaging modern culture and vibrantly proclaiming the Christian message in the secular world. But pastorally, the Vatican is failing badly. The true hero of the abuse crisis, archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, was hung out to dry. Meanwhile, cardinal Sodano still haunts the inner sanctum of the Vatican, powerful as ever. This corrupted and calcified clericalism clothed in canon law needs to end now. It is destroying the Church. It is destroying souls.
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