Calls for Vatican to issue statement on abuse

THE Vatican should break its silence and come clean on what it knew about systemic clerical child abuse in Ireland, Labour foreign affairs spokesman Micheal D Higgins has demanded.

More than a week after the publication of the Ryan report, which catalogued decades of systematic child abuse by the clergy and their attempts to cover up their crimes, the Vatican has yet to issue an official statement on the scandal.

The only comment from a senior Vatican official on the Irish abuse cases came on Thursday. Incoming prefect of the congregation for divine worship and discipline of the sacraments Cardinal Antonio Canizares told Spanish TV that “what happened at some schools cannot be compared with the millions of lives that have been destroyed by abortion”. He also described the abuse as “totally condemnable” and “we have to ask forgiveness”.