Quote of the Day

[A recently released 1997 letter from the Vatican to the bishops of Ireland] undermines persistent Vatican claims, particularly when seeking to defend itself in U.S. lawsuits, that Rome never instructed local bishops to withhold evidence or suspicion of crimes from police. It instead emphasizes the church's right to handle all child-abuse allegations and determine punishments in house rather than give that power to civil authorities.

Signed by the late Archbishop Luciano Storero, Pope John Paul II's diplomat to Ireland, the letter instructs Irish bishops that their new policy of making the reporting of suspected crimes mandatory "gives rise to serious reservations of both a moral and canonical nature."

Storero wrote that canon law, which required abuse allegations and punishments to be handled within the church, "must be meticulously followed." Any bishops who tried to impose punishments outside the confines of canon law would face the "highly embarrassing" position of having their actions overturned on appeal in Rome, he wrote.

Catholic officials in Ireland and the Vatican declined AP requests to comment on the letter, which [Irish broadcasters] RTE said it received from an Irish bishop.

– Shawn Pogatchnik
"Vatican Warned Irish Bishops Not to Report Abuse"
The Associated Press
January 18, 2011

Related Off-Site Links:
Vatican Says 1997 Irish Abuse Letter Misunderstood – Nicole Winfield (Associated Press, January 19, 2011).
Essential Reading: Tom Doyle's Response to John Allen, Jr. – The Progressive Catholic Voice (December 27, 2011).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Father Thomas Doyle: "There's Something Radically Wrong with the Institutional Catholic Church"
Quote of the Day – December 22, 2010
Quote of the Day – April 28, 2010
The Real Crisis
The Roman Catholic Pyramid is Crumbling
An Offering of Ashes