Children’s rights come first

EDITORIAL

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny was unequivocal when he stated last week that the rights of Irish children must be placed above all other interests.
Reacting to the findings of the Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Diocese of Cloyne, Mr Kenny made it clear that as the democratically elected leader of our country, he will not stand for any attempts to circumvent the laws of the land when it comes to dealing with issues of child abuse.
The commission found that the Vatican undermined the Irish bishop’s policy of informing gardaí and health authorities of all allegations of clerical child sexual abuse. Chairperson, Judge Yvonne Murphy, said when the Vatican described the Irish bishops’ 1996 guidelines as ‘merely a study document’, it ‘comforted and supported’ senior clerics in the County Cork diocese who dissented from their bishops’ collective policy.
While Mr Kenny has drawn criticism from some quarters for using a 1990 quote from the then Cardinal Josef Ratzinger (Pope Benedict) out of context, it nevertheless demonstrates a mindset in the Church of being at a remove from the public at large.
“Standards of conduct appropriate to civil society or the workings of a democracy cannot be purely and simply applied to the Church,” the Pope said.
“As the Holy See prepares its considered response to the Cloyne Report, as Taoiseach, I am making it absolutely clear, that when it comes to the protection of the children of this State, the standards of conduct which the Church deems appropriate to itself, cannot and will not, be applied to the workings of democracy and civil society in this republic. Not purely, or simply or otherwise.  Children first,” Mr Kenny said in the Dáil.
The Taoiseach did not express any anti-Catholic sentiments, but rather vented his anger at the ducking and diving that has hallmarked the Catholic Church hierarchy’s approach to crimes of child sex abuse perpetrated by ordained priests. He was reflecting the frustration of the majority of people in this country that the Cloyne Report has uncovered more of the same and not only that but that up to very recently, the diocese was trying to sweep things under the carpet.
If the Ryan and Murphy reports had left Ireland “unshockable” when it comes to the abuse of children, Mr Kenny suggested, “the Cloyne Report has proved to be of a different order”.
The reason, the Taoiseach explained, was that for the first time in Ireland, a report into child sexual-abuse exposes an attempt by the Holy See to frustrate an inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic as little as three years ago, not three decades ago.
The Cloyne Report excavates the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism, the narcissism that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day, Mr Kenny stated.
“The rape and torture of children were downplayed or ‘managed’ to uphold instead, the primacy of the institution, its power, standing and ‘reputation’. Far from listening to evidence of humiliation and betrayal with St Benedict’s ‘ear of the heart’, the Vatican’s reaction was to parse and analyse it with the gimlet eye of a canon lawyer. This calculated, withering position being the polar opposite of the radicalism, humility and compassion upon which the Roman Church was founded,” Mr Kenny said.
He noted how “clericalism has rendered some of Ireland’s brightest, most privileged and powerful men either unwilling or unable to address the horrors cited in the Ryan and Murphy Reports”.
Like all fair minded people the length and breadth of the country, Mr Kenny is well aware that the vast majority of priests are very decent men, who are feeling hurt and shame due to the actions of a few.
“But thankfully for them and for us, this is not Rome. Nor is it industrial-school or Magdalene Ireland, where the swish of a soutane smothered conscience and humanity and the swing of a thurible ruled the Irish-Catholic world. This is the Republic of Ireland 2011. A republic of laws, of rights and responsibilities, of proper civic order, where the delinquency and arrogance of a particular version, of a particular kind of ‘morality’, will no longer be tolerated or ignored,” said the Taoiseach
Mr Kenny acknowledged that for too long Ireland has neglected its children, but said the Government is set to embark on a course of action to ensure the State is doing all it can to safeguard our children.
Accused by some of being populist and opportunistic in speaking out about the Cloyne Report, Mr Kenny’s stance has been welcomed at home and abroad; several prominent clerics are in this camp.
The Taoiseach’s comments have needless to say ruffled feathers in the Vatican but they would not have been altogether unexpected. Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Eamon Gilmore met with the Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, immediately after the publication of the report. He left the archbishop in no doubt as to the Government’s take on the report, the gravity of the actions and attitude of the Holy See.
Relations between the Government and the Vatican have cooled and the Papal Nuncio has been recalled to Rome for consultations on the Cloyne Report. This will have little, if any, affect on our everyday lives, however.
Pope Benedict provides the majority of Irish people with religious leadership but Enda Kenny has drawn a line in the sand to separate Church and State’s perceptions of basic rights and wrongs.
This country imposes no restrictions on the practice of any religion, but citizens must be answerable to the State rather than their church if they break the law. Lest there be any doubt about it in any section of society, sex abuse is indeed a very serious crime.