The Vatican's attitude to the Church's efforts to introduce child
protection measures in Ireland was not helpful, Cardinal Sean Brady has
admitted.
The country's most senior Catholic cleric acknowledged
criticism levelled at the authorities in Rome by the damning Cloyne
report.
The inquiry lambasted the Vatican for referring to mandatory
guidelines for reporting abuse, drawn up in the mid-1990s, as merely a
study document.
It said this approach was "entirely unhelpful" and had effectively
given Bishop John Magee carte blanche to ignore the new protection
framework in Cloyne.
Cardinal Brady said he agreed with this assessment of the Vatican's
stance in 1996, but insisted it was now very different, pointing to the
recent letter written by Pope Benedict to congregations across Ireland.
"The Vatican's attitude then was not helpful," he said.
"But since then we have had the pastoral letter from the Holy Father
last year which urges us to co-operate with the civil authorities, with
our National Board, and that's the line we are following very much at
the moment."
Meanwhile, Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore has come under pressure from
Cabinet colleagues to summon the Pope's Irish ambassador over Rome's
role in the Cloyne scandal.
Justice Minister Alan Shatter said the intervention by the then Papal
Nuncio - who he described as an ambassador from a foreign state - was
unfortunate and unacceptable when the country was given assurances the
church had implemented new child protection guidelines.
Describing it as a matter of some seriousness, Mr Shatter said it was
a matter for the Tanaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Mr Gilmore to
"have a conversation" with the Papal Nuncio.