Vatican’s Letter Stirs the “Disgust” of the Victims of Pedophile Priests in Ireland

The Vatican has to deal again with a new sexual-related scandal as the Irish victims of abuses said on Wednesday they have been “disgusted” by a newly revealed letter by which a Vatican official expressed reservation over the idea that the bishops should be required to report to the police any information about suspected abuse sexual in nature committed by priests.

The survivors of sexual abuse will ask clarifications about the letter of the cardinal who leads a delegation to Ireland.

The reason the abuse victims seem to be disgusted is that details were revealed in the letter, and the revelations affected many of them.

The letter written in 1997 from the Vatican’s envoy to Ireland requested the bishops to observe the church law in dealing with cases of suspected child sex abuse by Roman Catholic Church.

The envoy expressed reservations over going with such information to the police.

The Vatican replied by saying that the letter was misunderstood, as it was released early this week by an Irish broadcaster, while Conference of Irish Bishops said they had since 1996 a policy to report to the police cases of possible child molestation by priests.

Victims of the abuses are expected to meet Benedict XVI’s envoy to Ireland, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor on Friday. A spokesman for the cardinal declined to say whether he would meet them, given the sensitivity of the issue.

The two-page letter was written by Apostolic Nuncio Luciano Storero to the bishops in Ireland in response to a previous letter the Irish bishops had sent Vatican with the recommendation to report to the police any suspected child abuse cases.

Upon studying the letter, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy concluded that some of the procedures it recommends are contrary to canonical law of the Roman Catholic Church.

The congregation added that if this thing came to pass, it would invalidate the actions the bishops themselves should take in such situations.

The letter adds that the dioceses would be highly prejudiced if such recommendations became fact, and expressed serious reservation moral and canonical in nature.

The Irish Catholic Bishops Conference say that the “mandatory reporting” has been the policy of the church in Ireland for years.

The spokesman for the conference called on the Irish government to facilitate by law mandatory reporting.

Vatican’s lawyers said the letter was deeply misunderstood and that it referred to the fact that the bishops were asked to discipline the priests at fault in such a way that they may not avoid punishment based upon technical grounds.

He added that the letter was by no means a rejection of the conference’s proposition, while the Vatican’s spokesman reminded that the letter was written before 2001 norms, when the matter was clarified.

The survivors of sexual abuses consider this letter as a prove that Vatican is protecting pedophile priests.