By Christina Berger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
DUBLIN, Ireland — A newly revealed 1997 document shows that the Vatican warned Irish Bishops against mandatory reporting of suspected child-abuse cases by priests to the police. Victims groups are calling this letter the “smoking gun” they’ve been looking for to prove that the Vatican engaged in a culture of cover-up.
The document does appear to contradict repeated claims from the Vatican over the years that church leaders in Rome did not seek to steer the actions of local bishops in suspected child-abuse cases by priests, nor did they hamper criminal investigations into child abuse.
The letter, obtained by the Irish Broadcaster RTE, was sent by the late Archbishop Luciano Storero, who was serving as Pope John Paul II’s chief representative to Ireland at the time. The letter was a response to a new policy instituted by Irish Bishops to deal with sexual abuse of children by priests. The policy included mandatory reporting of suspected abusers to the police.
The Storero letter, a copy of which the New York Times has made available on their website, stated that the proposed policy of mandatory reporting “gives rise to serious reservations of both a moral and a canonical nature.” The letter stresses “the need for the policy to conform to the canonical norms presently in force.” The letter goes on to state that by following non-canonical procedures, Bishops “could invalidate the acts of the same Bishops who are attempting to put a stop to these problems” and the “results could be highly embarrassing and detrimental to those same Diocesan authorities.”
A spokesman for the Vatican, Rev. Federico Lombardi, confirmed the letter’s authenticity, but stressed that it was outdated, saying it referred to a “situation that [they’ve] now moved beyond.” Lombardi indicated that the approach to sexual abuse cases changed in 2001 when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, at the time led by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, was put in charge of such cases.
According to the Associated Press, today the Vatican instructs bishops worldwide to report crimes to the police — in a legally non-binding lay guide on its Web site. This advice is not included in the official legal advice provided by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was updated last summer. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith continues to stress the secrecy of canon law.
Victims groups and activists believe that this letter proves that the Vatican did practice a policy of cover up by instructing local bishops not to report suspected abusers to the criminal authorities. “The Vatican is at the root of this problem,” said Colm O’Gorman, director of the Irish chapter of Amnesty International. “Any suggestion that they have not deliberately and willfully been instructing bishops not to report priests to appropriate civil authorities is now proven to be ridiculous.”
Joelle Casteix, a director of U.S. advocacy group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said the Storero letter was the “smoking gun” they’ve been looking for, and would likely be used in the future by victims’ lawyers seeking to hold the Vatican responsible.
“In the mid 1990s, Irish bishops wanted to start telling law enforcement about horrific child sex crimes,” the group, The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a statement. “Top Vatican bureaucrats told them no. That’s what this newly released letter shows. We can’t help but wonder how many other similar documents — in which the Vatican thwarts local efforts to combat abuse — remain hidden in church records across the world.”
For more information, please see:
BBC — Vatican officials told Irish not to report child abuse — 19 Jan. 2011
CNN — Irish abuse victims ‘disgusted’ at Vatican letter — 19 Jan. 2011
AP — Vatican Warned Irish Bishops Not to Report Abuse — 18 Jan. 2011
NYT — Vatican Letter Warned Bishops on Abuse Policy — 18 Jan. 2011
