Taoiseach stands over Vatican criticism

ENDA KENNY says he stands over his blistering criticism of the Vatican and has repeated his charge that Rome failed to co-operate with a state inquiry into child sexual abuse as little as three years ago.

However, the Taoiseach indicated that his claim related to the Vatican’s response to the inquiry into the Dublin archdiocese rather than the more recent inquiry into the Diocese of Cloyne, both of which were conducted by the same commission of investigation.

“My claim in the Dáil still stands, because this was a statutory commission of inquiry, and in 2006, and in 2007, and in 2009, there were requests for information and assistance (made) to the Vatican by the Murphy Commission, and in each of these cases, that request was either refused or rejected,” Mr Kenny said yesterday.