Ireland: Parliament Blames Vatican For Covering Up Pedophile Cases
Ireland’s lawmakers on Wednesday accused the Vatican of encouraging Roman Catholic bishops not to tell the police about priests who were suspected of being pedophiles and of flouting Irish law. The rare denunciation of the Holy See’s influence in this predominantly Catholic country came just a week after the government issued a report accusing the Vatican of sabotaging Irish bishops’ 1996 decision to begin reporting suspected cases of child abuse to the police.