Chairman of the Fine Gael parliamentary party Charlie Flanagan has
called for the expulsion of the Papal Nuncio, following the revelations
in the Cloyne Report.
Deputy Flanagan, who is also a TD for Laois-Offaly, said the scandals
uncovered showed the Vatican was guilty of a massive deceit.
He said that if any foreign government conspired with Irish citizens
to break the law here, their ambassadors would be expelled and he
believed the same standards should apply to the Papal Nuncio.
Earlier Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore told the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop
Guiseppe Leanza, that he wants a 'response' and an explanation from the
Vatican as to why Irish church guidelines were ignored and allegations
of abuse went unreported in the Diocese of Cloyne.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Gilmore
said it was 'absolutely unacceptable' that the Vatican had intervened
in Ireland and discouraged priests from reporting crimes against
innocent children.
Mr Gilmore said what happened in Ireland was 'a totally inappropriate, unjustified, unacceptable intervention'.
'This is modern Ireland and this was a recent occasion of abuse of
children and this was a recent intervention by Vatican authorities,' he
said.
Mr Gilmore said the Papal Nuncio had expressed remorse about what had happened.
Asked whether the Government would be seeking an apology from the
Vatican, Mr Gilmore said what he wanted first was a response to the
findings in the report.
He said it was a matter for the Vatican to decide whether the Pope would respond himself.
The Tánaiste said this was a formal request from the State of Ireland
to the Vatican state.
He said he had not set a timeframe for the
response, but that he would follow-up the request.
In his statement, Archbishop Leanza said he would immediately bring a copy of the report to the attention of the Holy See.
He said he personally was very distressed to learn that there had
once again been failures in ensuring the protection of children within
the church, despite all the good work that had been done.
Speaking to RTÉ News today, former child protection delegate of the
diocese, Monsignor Denis O'Callaghan, said that he has major regrets
about the way he implemented the church's child protection guidelines in
the diocese.
The diocese's new designated officer for safeguarding children has
said that no new reports of child abuse have been reported in Cloyne
since February.