Officials issue rebuttal of report priests were told to keep quiet about abuse and hits back at criticism by Irish PM

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

The Vatican has issued a tough rebuttal of a report claiming it told priests in Ireland to keep quiet about sexual abuse and described criticism by the Irish prime minister, Enda Kenny, as "unfounded".

The Vatican sought to dismantle, point by point, claims made by the report, ordered by the Irish government and released in July, which prompted Kenny to condemn the Vatican as riddled with "dysfunction, disconnection and elitism".

In the ensuing row, the Vatican took the highly unusual decision to recall its ambassador from staunchly Catholic Ireland, with one spokesman in Rome describing its "surprise and disappointment".

The groundbreaking report into abuse in the diocese of Cloyne highlighted a 1997 Vatican letter which expressed "serious reservations" about a policy drawn up the year before by Irish bishops requiring abusers to be reported to the police.

It found the diocese then failed to report nine out of 15 complaints made against priests between 1996 and 2005 which "very clearly should have been reported".

The findings encouraged Irish politicians, led by Kenny, to claim the Vatican's letter had effectively crippled the Irish church's efforts to tackle the abuse within its ranks.

Breaking with years of traditional subservience to the Vatican by Irish politicians, Kenny said: "The rape and torture of children were downplayed or 'managed' to uphold, instead, the primacy of the institution, its power, standing and 'reputation'."

The Vatican's response listed the reasons why the diocese's poor track record on abuse could not be blamed on the 1997 letter by the then Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Luciano Storero.

While the response conceded that the Vatican viewed the bishops' guidelines on police reporting as a mere "study document" and not binding, it stated that this was because Irish bishops had described it as such.

"The [Vatican] congregation for the clergy did express reservations about mandatory reporting," it said, adding that this was only because of concerns of clashing with the work of church tribunals in rooting out paedophile priests.

Fears were also raised that the Irish guidelines would overlap with new powers handed to US bishops by the Vatican to stamp out abuse, which were extended to Irish bishops in 1996.

"Meeting canonical requirements to ensure the correct administration of justice within the church in no way precluded cooperation with the civil authorities," the Vatican document said.

The document pointed out that mandatory reporting of abuse was not law in Ireland at the time. "Given that the Irish government of the day decided not to legislate on the matter, it is difficult to see how Archbishop Storero's letter… could possibly be construed as having somehow subverted Irish law."

It admitted the Vatican's "shame" over the "terrible sufferings which the victims of abuse and their families have had to endure" in Ireland, but stated the blame for abuse in Cloyne after 1997 was squarely with the diocese.

Maeve Lewis, the Irish director for the anti-child abuse campaign group One in Four, said the response was a let-down.

"Once again the Vatican has failed to take responsibility for a culture which prevails in the Catholic church which facilitates the sexual abuse of children," she said. .

"In the response, they seek to justify actions and present themselves as having been misunderstood, whereas people in the church were using Vatican writing and thinking to find a way to avoid reporting abuse to civil authorities.

"I hope the Irish government now maintains its stance, which represented Irish thinking."