Ecrasez l'infme!

Enda Kennys Vatican Smack-Down

by Francoise Arouete Until Maureen Dowd wrote her wonderful editorial, The End of Awe most Americans never heard of Enda Kenny whose speech on Cloyne Report recently rocked the U.K. press only to be silenced by the American corporate press. The Cloyne Report lays out Vaticans cover-up and illegal interference with official government investigation into the Catholic churches official dogma of no childs behind left. Most of us this side of the Pond never got of whiff of this papal stench or Kennys speech primarily because the American corporate-controlled media, ever under the thumb of the religious right and Vaticans public relations spin [witch] doctors, is ever-busy amusing us to death with programing calculated to insult the intelligence of a confederacy of dunces. A perfect example of such dumbed-down propaganda is Ann M. Simmons, Los Angeles Times headline, Norway attacks: Norwegians seek comfort from clergy, church services after attacks. Like so much of the offal that passes for journalism today the article is a text book example of Janet Malcolms famous line that, "Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible." Fortunately the comments section demonstrates that Angelians are not quite the vapid valley girls of pop culture whose idiocy and nincompoopery Ms. Simons takes for granted. Ill provide just two examples of astute observation from one commentator: Sorker wrote, Oops! Notice that the pic the Times has posted MIGHT look like some church cleric comforting a "member of the flock" in a church but it's not. That's the Prime Minister and the gathering was at a hotel. I guess the Times couldn't Photoshop the Cathedral shot yet. Maybe by Sunday they can get a shot of one Norwegian. [And] The truth that the Times missed is that most Norwegian don't care for the intrusion of the government church ... In 2005, a survey conducted by Gallup International in sixty-five countries indicated that Norway was the least religious country in Western Europe. In Norway, 3 per cent on average attend church on Sunday. In 2007, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of Norwegian parents who had sued the Norwegian state to overturn a law that required the teaching of Christianity in schools, though now they still teach it under the guise of a course on "religion". We don't see any facts from the Times supporting the sweeping generalization that "Norwegians turned to their churches".It seems more likely that "their Page 1 of 5

churches", like all the other government departments, are making announcements. We have only the usual PR tweets from bishops and the Pope but that's not news and is no indication of what percentage of Norwegians are going to "turn to their churches". But I have diverged. Here is the story: Enda Kenny (born 24 April 1951) is an Irish politician, the leader of the Fine Gael party, one of the country's two major political parties, since 2002. He is the Taoiseach (the head of government or prime minister of Ireland.) On 13 July 2011 the Cloyne Report was published, detailing the investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse by 19 priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cloyne. [Click here for more details.] Among the report's findings were the revelation that the vast majority of allegations made in the diocese were not reported to the Garda, as required by the Church's 1996 guidelines; that the Bishop of the Diocese, John Magee, and others had withheld full cooperation with the Government's investigation and had deliberately misrepresented his own response to the allegations; and that the Vatican itself had both refused to cooperate in the investigation and counseled the Diocese that the 1996 guidelines were not binding. I doubt if anyone is surprised. (See the Irish Times, Cloyne report finds failures by church, State agencies .) Ecrasez l'infme! On July 20th, Kenny, a practicing Catholic, vehemently condemned the Vatican for its role in the scandal, stating that the Church's role in obstructing the investigation was a serious infringement upon the sovereignty of Ireland and that the scandal revealed "the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism and narcissism that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day." He added that "the historic relationship between church and state in Ireland could not be the same again." How the worlds media reported (or failed to report) Enda Kennys attack on the Vatican is, itself, telling. Ecrasez l'infme! Kenny's attack on the Vatican was unprecedented by a high-level official in Ireland, whose formal relationship with the Catholic Church had long been viewed as intimate and inextricable. The speech was widely regarded as extraordinary, with Britain's Daily Mail newspaper commenting that "The astonishing attack was the first time that Ireland's Parliament has publicly castigated the Vatican instead of local church leaders during the country's 17 years of paedophile-priest scandals." The Guardian remarked that " the political classes have...lost their fear, namely of the once almighty Roman Catholic church."

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This all adds gloss to The Case of the Pope: Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuse a brave and courageous book by Geoffrey Robertson who is one of the worlds most respected human rights attorneys who has made a rather rock-solid legal argument under international law that we should Put the pope in the dock to stand trial in the European Court of Human Rights since his legal immunity cannot hold and the Vatican should feel the full weight of international law. In the famous painting, Mussolini and Pope Pius XII 1933 by Diego Rivera the artist captures the truth about the Lateran Treaty. The pro-Fascist Pope Pius XII (Hitlers Pope) blesses (with fingers crossed) the demagogue Mussolini, having stayed silent when his death squad murdered the courageous democrat MP Giacomo Matteotti seen lower right. Last year Robertson wrote, The anomalous claim of the Vatican to be a state and of the pope to be a head of state and hence immune from legal action cannot stand up to scrutiny. The truly shocking finding of Judge Murphy's commission in Ireland was not merely that sexual abuse was "endemic" in boys' institutions but that the church hierarchy protected the perpetrators and, despite knowledge of their propensity to reoffend, allowed them to take up new positions teaching other children after their victims had been sworn to secrecy. This conduct, of course, amounted to the criminal offence of aiding and abetting sex with minors. In legal actions against Catholic archdioceses in the US it has been alleged that the same conduct reflected Vatican policy as approved by Cardinal Ratzinger (as the pope then was) as late as November 2002. Sexual assaults were regarded as sins that were subject to church tribunals, and guilty priests were sent on a "pious pilgrimage" while oaths of confidentiality were extracted from their victims. In the US, 11,750 allegations of child sex abuse have so far featured in actions settled by archdioceses in Los Angeles for $660m and in Boston for $100m. But some dioceses have gone into bankruptcy and some claimants want higher level accountability two reasons to sue the pope in person. In 2005 a test case in Texas failed because the Vatican sought and obtained the intercession of President Bush, who agreed to claim sovereign (ie head of state) immunity on the pope's behalf. Bush lawyer John B Bellinger III certified that Pope Benedict the XVI was immune from suit "as the head of a foreign state". Bellinger is now notorious for his defence of Bush administration torture policies. His opinion on papal immunity is even more questionable. It hinges on the assumption that the Vatican, or its metaphysical emanation, the Holy See, is a Page 3 of 5

state. But the papal states were extinguished by invasion in 1870 and the Vatican was created by fascist Italy in 1929 when Mussolini endowed this tiny enclave 0.17 of a square mile containing 900 Catholic bureaucrats with "sovereignty in the international field ... in conformity with its traditions and the exigencies of its mission in the world" The notion that statehood can be created by another country's unilateral declaration is risible: Iran could make Qom a state overnight, or the UK could launch Canterbury on to the international stage. But it did not take long for Catholic countries to support the pretentions of the Holy See, sending ambassadors and receiving papal nuncios in return. Even the UK maintains an apostolic mission. The UN at its inception refused membership to the Vatican but has allowed it a unique "observer status", permitting it to become signatory to treaties such as the Law of the Sea and (ironically) the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and to speak and vote at UN conferences where it promotes its controversial dogmas on abortion, contraception and homosexuality. This has involved the UN in blatant discrimination on grounds of religion: other faiths are unofficially represented, if at all, by NGOs. But it has encouraged the Vatican to claim statehood and immunity from liability. This claim could be challenged successfully in the UK and in the European Court of Human Rights. But in any event, head of state immunity provides no protection for the pope in the international criminal court (see its current indictment of President Bashir). The ICC Statute definition of a crime against humanity includes rape and sexual slavery and other similarly inhumane acts causing harm to mental or physical health, committed against civilians on a widespread or systematic scale, if condoned by a government or a de facto authority. It has been held to cover the recruitment of children as soldiers or sex slaves. If acts of sexual abuse by priests are not isolated or sporadic, but part of a wide practice both known to and unpunished by their de facto authority then they fall within the temporal jurisdiction of the ICC if that practice continued after July 2002, when the court was established. Robertsons brilliant and brave book presents a challenge no thoughtful Catholic can ignore. He is a brilliant lawyer and the clear light of his style is painstaking, thorough, and dispassionate as it throws into cruel relief the truth from which the Pope cannot hide, said Richard Dawkins. As counsel for the prosecution his moral passion combines with steely forensic precision, enlivened with the odd flash of dry wit. With admirable Page 4 of 5

judiciousness, it even finds it in its heart to praise the charitable work of the Catholic church, as well as reminding us that paedophiles (whom Robertson has defended in court) can be kindly men. Terry Eagleton of the Guardian called it one of the most formidable demolition jobs one could imagine on a man who has done more to discredit the cause of religion than Rasputin and Pat Robertson put together. The Case of the Pope delivers a devastating indictment of the way the Vatican has run a secret legal system that shields paedophile priests from criminal trial around the world and the Pope is both morally and legally responsible for the negligence that has allowed so many terrible crimes to go unpunished. He and his seat of power, the Holy See, should not continue to enjoy an immunity that places them above the law. As a distinguished human rights lawyer and judge, Geoffrey Robertson QC, evinces a deep respect for the good works of Catholics and their church. But, he argues, unless Pope Benedict XVI can divest himself of the beguilements of statehood and devotion to obsolescent canon law, the Vatican will remain a serious enemy to the advance of human rights. Enda Kennys smack down was a long time coming from a head of state. Ecrasez l'infme! Francoise Arouete Copyrights Francoise Arouete 2011

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