Acta Benedicti Pp. XVI 683

Furthermore, the Holy See is close to the people of the Diocese of Cloyne,

who are in an understandable state of anger, confusion and sadness because

of what has happened, and to its priests, the majority of whom are irre-

proachable and continue to do much good in their communities in these

trying circumstances, as they labour in the Lord's vineyard.

The Holy See is deeply concerned at the findings of the Commission of

Inquiry concerning grave failures in the ecclesiastical governance of the Dio-

cese of Cloyne and the mishandling of allegations of abuse. It is particularly

disturbing that these failures occurred despite the undertaking given by the

Bishops and Religious Superiors to apply the guidelines developed by the

Church in Ireland to help ensure child protection and despite the Holy See's

own norms and procedures relating to cases of sexual abuse.

The approach taken in recent times by the Church in Ireland to the

problem of child sexual abuse has benefitted from ongoing experience, as

was demonstrated by the publication in December 2008 by the Diocese of

Cloyne of the report of the Church's National Board for Safeguarding Chil-

dren (known as the Elliott Report), which did not hesitate to criticise severely

the manner in which cases of sexual abuse had been handled by that Diocese.

The publication of this report appears to have played a significant role in the

Irish Government's decision to refer the Diocese of Cloyne to the Dublin

Archdiocese Commission of Inquiry, a decision taken despite the Irish Health

Service Executive's recommendation that "a referral to this Commission was

not warranted" (6.96). The Elliott Report also led to the Diocese implementing

major changes to the handling of child abuse allegations, as the Cloyne Report

acknowledges (6.99).

The Cloyne Report, while acknowledging "that the standards which were

adopted by the Church are high standards which, if fully implemented, would

afford proper protection to children" (1.15), challenges all involved to ensure

more effective implementation of the relevant norms and guidelines.

Since the Cloyne Report is being examined by the relevant Irish civil

authorities with a view to determining whether there are grounds for

criminal and civil prosecution, the Holy See does not wish to encroach on

matters which may currently be the object of study and investigation by

these instances.

This Response, therefore, refers to issues directly relating to the

Holy See which were raised in the Cloyne Report, by the Tánaiste in the

above-mentioned meeting with the Apostolic Nuncio, by the Taoiseach in