WikiLeaks cables show ambassador to Holy See saw crisis as ‘most difficult he had ever managed’
John Downes, News Investigations Correspondent

As the government braces itself for the imminent release by WikiLeaks of hundreds more US diplomatic cables that refer to Ireland, a confidential US embassy cable released by the Wiki­Leaks website also reveals that the Irish ambassador to the Vatican and former ambassador to the USA, Noel Fahey, described the row between the commission and the Vatican as the “most difficult crisis he had ever managed”.

WikiLeaks is believed to have around another 900 cables emanating from the US embassy in Dublin, with 300 or so more from the US consulate in Belfast. It is expected to release these in the coming months, as it works its way through more than 250,000 such cables which it has obtained.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it had no comment on the content of the cable.

Dated 26 February 2010 and noted as having been “contributed to and cleared” by the US embassy in Dublin, it outlines how the Irish government “wanted to be seen as cooperating with the investigation because its education department was implicated, but did not want to insist that the Vatican answer the requests because they had come outside of regular channels.

“The Irish embassy to the Holy See offered to facilitate better communications between the Irish commission and the Holy See, but neither party took any further action,” it stated. “In the end, the Irish government decided not to press the Vatican to reply, according to Fahey’s deputy…. (she said) the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith probably did not have much to add to the inquiry.”

Commenting on the WikiLeaks revelations yesterday, Maeve Lewis of the One in Four charity revealed that she has yet to receive “even an acknowledgement” from the pope after her organisation wrote directly to him about the issue last February. This is despite that they had used proper diplomatic channels to do so. But the US diplomatic cables “simply confirmed what we already knew,” she said.

“We have always said it was shameful for the Vatican not to cooperate with the Murphy commission, as is its ongoing refusal to divulge the contents of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith documents in relation to clerical sex abuse worldwide,” she added.

Requests for information from the Murphy commission “offended many in the Vatican” who felt the government had “failed to respect and protect Vatican sovereignty during the (commission) investigations”, the cable also reports.

Elsewhere, it claimed Vatican officials also believed Irish opposition politicians were making “political hay” from the situation by publicly urging the government to demand a reply from the Vatican following publication of the Murphy report in November 2009.

December 12th 2010

 

2 Responses to “Embassy offered to intervene in Vatican abuse row”

  1. this could be the cause of well cared for pedophiles living freely all over the world.

  2. robert says:

    The views by the Vatican and the Irish Government are as FAR AWAY from the experience suffered by children in these prison schools.
    What ever happened is noted in the reports, but it would be far too disturbing for such leaders mentioned to actually read the reports they mention in public view.
    There seems even after so many thousands of voices, the kind of denial by the perpetrators involved.
    This will always be the example of how not to trust people of this sort in power.
    They may hold office but at the end they are just people and as people they have to face those they claim to love and cherish.
    How in gods name can someone think they should be trusted by family members, friends, voters, if they actually deny this whole sordid affair. The destruction of thousands of children’s lives.
    To actually deny the damage done is just the most disturbing thought anyone could ever imagine.

    How dare the Vatican even mention the man crucified when they might just as well have crucified every single child in these schools. Everything pertaining to a healthy life they stripped, stripped away and now the salt is thrown on the wounds by its soldiers the Government.
    All that is missing is the actual crucifixion of nails.
    And i see the Government as the soldiers guarding the Vatican’s words, as they ask the Vatican what shall we do with these people we gave you as children.

    Whenever I think of the so called education/counseling funds i see old people who never knew childhood as the norm, wondering how are they going to stay warm, for the night, a roof finally over their heads, food in their tummy, clothes on their back some change in their pocket.
    Well what does one expect? 500 million euro?

    THAT WAS THE DOWN PAYMENT JUST TO BE HEARD BY THE IRISH GOVERNMENT.
    HOW MUCH WILL THE VATICAN WANT TO HEAR OUR STORY ANOTHER 500 MILLION EURO?

    Is this what SOME OF these filthy groups call “SURVIVIORS” the past?