Local bishop accuses Taoiseach of "discourtesy" to Pope

Bishop of Meath Michael Smith has accused Taoiseach Enda Kenny of showing "discourtesy" to the Pope during his Dáil criticism of the Vatican's response to the Cloyne Report on child abuse. In a statement published on the diocese's website this week, Dr Smith says Kenny took a sentence from a document signed by the then Cardinal Ratzinger in May 1990 on the 'Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian' totally out of context and applied it to child abuse. The Meath diocese covers much of Offaly, including Tullamore. "This document affirmed the age-old teaching of the Church that it does not take its teaching from the State or from popular opinion but from the teaching of Jesus Christ. It is regrettable that the Taoiseach should show such discourtesy to Pope Benedict by taking a sentence from a long paragraph and applying it to a specific topic that this document in question was not addressing," the Bishop said. Describing the Vatican's response to the Taoiseach's criticisms as "a reasoned, measured and well-sourced document that merits careful reading", Dr Smith also said all States and bodies within States had grappled with the evil of the abuse of children by adults. However, he pointed out that the Irish Bishops' first document on handling allegations of abuse from 1996, obliged bishops and religious superiors to cooperate fully with the civil authorities and to report all allegations to the Gardaí and the HSE, even though civil law did not yet impose such an obligation. Bishop Smith also rejected criticism that this document had never been officially recognised by the Vatican. "There was no doubt in our minds as Bishops at that time that this was not a 'study document' but a set of procedures which all were expected to observe," he said.