THE POPE’S IMPRIMATUR FOR LIES AND COVER-UPS
When the Bishop of Clonfert John Kirby failed to tell the truth about sex abuse cover-ups, he did so with the benediction of Pope Benedict...
Eamonn McCann, 24 Oct 2012
The horrendous details of the Smyth case figured on the front pages of newspapers and in news bulletins in Ireland for most of 1994 and attracted prominent coverage across the world. But Kirby is now asking us to accept that his innocence and naivety were such that during this period he had continued to believe that the sexual abuse of children by priests might amount to nothing more than “friendship that crossed the boundary line.”
This will strike most people as wholly implausible – whether it refers to nine, 22 or any other number of victims. But it is exactly in line with the Vatican’s analysis. Bishop Kirby had the Pope’s imprimatur.
On March 12, 2000, Pope John Paul II presided at a magnificent ceremony in St. Peter’s to mark 2,000 years of Christianity by “purifying the memory” of the Church. The main address came from Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, Dean of the College of Cardinals, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and future Pope Benedict XVI. He said: “Let us pray that each one of us, looking to the Lord Jesus, meek and humble of heart, will recognise that even men of the church, in the name of faith and morals, have sometimes used methods not in keeping with the gospel in the solemn duty of defending the truth.”
Lest there be any doubt what that final phrase signified, Ratzinger went on to acknowledge “sins committed in the service of Truth.”
The reference is to the role of the Church as the embodiment of Lord Jesus – “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
The mandate from heaven obliterates all stain of sin, washes away in the blood of the lamb every wickedness committed in the service of Truth.
Kirby didn’t see covering up child sex abuse in Clonfert as evil, because nothing done in the interests of ultimate Good can itself be evil.
The Church is impeccable – incapable of sinning – and thus innocent even when guilty.
Again, again, I say unto you, how can it be that although the capo di tutti capi of this criminal conspiracy has allowed it to be known that he will soon be within the same jurisdiction as Clonfert, no arrest warrant has been issued, nor child protection officers sent forth with photographs, machine guns and mace, nor any of his followers placed under parochial house arrest.
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