EVEN AS Irish bishops flew into Rome yesterday for a series of meetings about the organisation of the forthcoming apostolic visitation to Ireland, the Vatican’s senior spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi, acknowledged the clerical sex abuse crisis had severely tested the Catholic Church’s commitment to be open and transparent with the world about the failings of its priests and religious.
“There was a great loss of trust in the church – partly justified and partly caused by a negative and incomplete portrayal of the problem – but this damage, as the pope has said, can be overcome . . . if we move in the direction of a profound purification and renewal,” said Fr Lombardi.
The Vatican spokesman made his remarks during a seminar for Catholic media at the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. Addressing more than 200 delegates from 83 countries, Fr Lombardi said the need to be “open and transparent” in dealing with the fallout from the sex abuse crisis had prompted important changes in the way the Vatican communicated with the world.
In particular, the Vatican website (vatican.va) now provides extensive documentation linked to the sex abuse crisis, in a section entitled “Abuse of Minors, the Church’s Response”. These web pages contain items such as an interview with the Vatican’s chief prosecutor, Charles Scicluna, and an outline of the norms invoked by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith when dealing with sex abuse, norms which previously would have remained confidential.
Speaking just two weeks after it was announced that the Vatican Bank was officially under investigation in relation to the non-implementation of anti-money laundering regulations, Fr Lombardi also said that the church has to be “open and transparent” when dealing with its finances.
Fr Lombardi made no reference to the three-way meeting going on yesterday and today at the Congregation of Bishops, involving Curia cardinals, designated apostolic visitors and four Irish bishops: Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop Dermot Clifford and Archbishop Michael Neary.