Irish PM: Vatican has 'calculated, withering' abuse stance

The Irish continue to react with outrage at the new revelations of coverup and untruth from the diocese of Cloyne. Today the Prime Minister spoke as excerpted below from a NCR story

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has accused the Vatican of adopting a "calculated, withering position" on abuse in the wake of a judicial report that accused the Holy See of being "entirely unhelpful" to Irish bishops trying to deal with abuse.
During a July 20 parliamentary debate, Kenny said an independent judicial investigation into the handling of clergy sexual abuse in the Diocese of Cloyne "exposes an attempt by the Holy See to frustrate an inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic as little as three years ago."
"And in doing so, the Cloyne Report excavates the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism and the narcissism that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day," he said
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The report accuses the Vatican of being "entirely unhelpful" to bishops who wanted to fully implement the 1996 guidelines, "Child Sexual Abuse: Framework for a Church Response."
Kenny said that "this calculated, withering position" was "the polar opposite of the radicalism, humility and compassion upon which the Roman church was founded."
He said that "the Irish people, including the very many faithful Catholics who -- like me -- have been shocked and dismayed by the repeated failings of church authorities to face up to what is required, deserve and require confirmation from the Vatican that they do accept, endorse and require compliance by all church authorities here with, the obligations to report all cases of suspected abuse, whether current or historical, to the state's authorities."
Referring to a tendency identified in the Cloyne Report to put the rights of accused clerics ahead of victims, Kenny said "clericalism has rendered some of Ireland's brightest, most privileged and powerful men, either unwilling or unable to address the horrors" of abuse.
He said this "Roman clericalism must be devastating for good priests, some of them old, others struggling to keep their humanity, even their sanity, as they work so hard, to be the keepers of the church's light and goodness within their parishes, communities and the human heart."
Kenny said the church needs to be "truly and deeply penitent for the horrors it perpetrated, hid and denied."

Vatican spokesman Fr. Lombardi denied this was true.

For the full story, see Irish PM criticizes Vatican