The other day I had a conversation with someone about Ireland and the Catholic Church. I was further informed that the Holy See had “interfered” with the Ireland’s affairs. I found it strange that such a busy man had enough time to meddle in the business of a country he has no personal ties to and that the Bishops would just willingly step aside as so to let it happened.
Some words were thrown out like the “Cloyne Report” and Prime Minister Kenny, lots of anger on their part and frustration that I wasn’t going to argue about something I had no clue about. So I did some research and this is what I found…Prime Minister Enda Kenny lied. What a surprise. But he’s probably a red-headed Protestant.
I read the Cloyne report, nothing about interference: The Cloyne Report - Document - NYTimes.com
But, the Catholic Church had already beat up on Cloyne and their lack of acting within Canon Law and the 1996 guidelines: http://www.cloynediocese.ie/2011/04/eliott-report-30th-june-2008/
Maybe Ireland was pissed off because they were behind the slowest moving government in the world and they hadn’t protected their own children (actually there was only one case that appeared since 1997).
The 1996 guidelines properly called the Child Sexual Abuse: Framework for a Church Response gave instructions in how to deal with the situation of child abuse, but the Diocese of Cloyne decided not to listen…again: http://www.cps.dublindiocese.ie/uploads/csaframework.pdf
The Pope actually did meddle somewhat, but his actions were much different than what the PM said: The Holy See’s Response to the Cloyne Report | Raymond J. de Souza | First Things
I tried to figure out where the PM was getting his information, and unless someone can find something that I can’t the man’s basis for saying the Holy See interfered was because “anger and frustration.” So, remember kids next time you are angry and frustrated you can lie and slander the people that help you out so much.
Read more: http://catholicleague.org/release.php?id=2227
Edit: Posted the Cloyne Report
Edit 2: Posted the 1996 Guidelines.
Edit 3: Posted CSA and the firsthings.com article
Edit 4: The post originally said something uncharitable about the PM probably being a red-headed narrow back and I changed it to Protestant and shortened the sentence.
Edit 5: Posted last Catholic League article and put the word “probably” back into the sentence since I hadn’t noticed I took it out. Apologies.