Vatican releases internal files in lawsuit
The files, which are published on the website of the Vatican Radio, are part of documentation the Vatican plans to turn over to US lawyers representing a man who claims he was abused by an Irish Catholic priest Fr Andrew Ronan.
It is the first time the Holy See has had to hand over documentation in relation to an abuse case.
The lawsuit taken in Oregon relates to a man, known as John Doe in court documents, who is seeking to hold the Vatican liable for the alleged abuse, as senior clergy there controlled the movements of priests in the US.
Fr Ronan molested boys in the 1950s as a priest in Ireland and then in Chicago, before his transfer to a church in Portland, Oregon, where he allegedly abused the victim who filed the lawsuit. Fr Ronan died in 1992.
The Vatican and its lawyers had vigorously opposed the action, claiming it had immunity from such actions due to its status as a foreign state.
A federal judge in Portland Oregon had ordered the Vatican to respond to certain requests for information from John Doe’s lawyers by Friday.
The files include the 1966 case file along with Fr Ronan’s request to be laicised after his superiors became aware that he had abused children in Ireland.
In a statement accompanying the documents, lawyer for the Vatican Jeffrey Lena said the documents proved the Holy See had only learned of the accusations against Fr Ronan after the abuse against John Doe had occurred and never was involved in any “transfer” of the priest.
“While the judicial system sometimes works slowly, these documents can be expected to be of assistance in bringing the case to a more rapid conclusion,” he said.
Mr Lena added that the release of the documents today should, “give pause to those persons, who all too willingly engage in sensational and intemperate comment without bothering to acquire a sound grasp of the facts.”
The unprecedented move comes just one month after Taoiseach Enda Kenny attacked the Vatican for its reaction to allegations of abuse of children in Cloyne.
In a groundbreaking, unexpected and powerful speech, Mr Kenny said that the Cloyne report exposed the “dysfunction, disconnection, elitism and narcissism” at the heart of the Vatican.
