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Ireland’s Prime Minister, Enda Kenny is standing by his comments that the Vatican hampered an enquiry into child sex abuse by Irish priests.
Kenny’s original remarks have been widely applauded in Ireland but in its response late last week, the Vatican said Kenny’s accusations were “unfounded.”
“Every organization, either faith or any other, will understand that the law of the land will apply here,” Kenny said.
Speaking following the release of the Vatican’s communique, Dublin Archbishop, Dr Diarmuid Martin has also taken issue with Kenny.
One of the key points of the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny’s intervention was the assertion that “the Holy See attempted to frustrate an enquiry in a sovereign democratic republic as little as three years ago not three decades ago,” Martin said.
“There is no evidence presented in the Murphy report to substantiate this, the Holy See could find no evidence and the Department of An Taoiseach’s office said that the Taoiseach was not referring to any specific event. This merits explanation.”
Kenny however rejects the Vatican’s assertion that he made an “unfounded ” allegation against it in relation to co-operation with the inquiry.
“I want to see that the church of which I am a member is absolutely above reproach in the issue of this and other areas,” Mr Kenny said.
“And for that reason, my claim in the Dail (Parliament) still stands. I made the point that this is a statutory commission of inquiry, and as such nothing less than full co-operation is required, and anything less than full co-operation in my view is unwarranted interference,” he said.
Sources
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News category: World.
