Holy See forced to release documentation by American judge
IrishCentral (irishcentral.com)
Published Thursday, August 18, 2011, 8:10 AM
Updated Thursday, August 18, 2011, 10:01 AM
By CATHAL DERVAN, IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
The Vatican has published details of an internal report into abuse allegations against an Irish priest in America
The Vatican has published details of an internal report into abuse allegations against an Irish priest in America – and denied it is at loggerheads with Enda Kenny’s government.
The Holy See has taken the steps in response to a US court claim taken by a victim of deceased Armagh born priest Rev. Andrew Ronan.
The files relating to alleged abuse by Ronan were released on the Vatican Radio website after an Oregon judge ordered it to turn over documentation relating to the case.
The Catholic Church is trying to prove it has no culpalibility in the case relating to Ronan who was accused of sexually assaulting an altar boy in Ireland in the 50s before he moved to America and re-offended in the 60s.
Lawyers for the Church believe their move proves that it was unaware of the suspected abuse of the claimant, named John V Doe in court documents, by Fr Ronan until after it had taken place.
In a statement accompanying the documents, Vatican lawyer Jeffrey Lena said that the unusual step would: “calm down those people who are too quick to make sensational and unfair comments without taking the time to get an adequate understanding of the facts.”
He has since confirmed to the Irish Independent that the remarks were not a criticism of the Irish government or its leader Enda Kenny after his recent criticism of the Vatican and the Catholic Church in the wake of the Cloyne Report.
“My comments were not directed personally at him,” Lena told the paper. “It was a reference to both lawyers and politicians but not a direct reference to Mr Kenny.”
But he added: “Mr Kenny’s speech to the Dail seemed intemperate.”
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Vatican releases files on ex-priest accused of abuse in US
irishtimes.com
18 August 2011
IN AN unprecedented move, the Vatican has published its internal files on an Irish priest accused of molesting boys in Ireland and the US.
In an accompanying statement, a lawyer for the Holy See also condemned “those people who are too quick to make sensational and unfair comments” about its involvement in clerical sexual abuse.
This was perceived in some quarters to be targeted at Taoiseach Enda Kenny over his trenchant criticism of the Vatican in the Dáil last month.
The files, published on the website of Vatican Radio yesterday, are part of documentation the Holy See plans to turn over to US lawyers representing an American who says he was abused by the late Fr Andrew Ronan over 40 years ago.
The case is seen to have implications for the Vatican’s international exposure to clerical sex abuse claims.
Known in court papers as John V Doe, the victim is seeking to hold the Vatican liable for allegedly being abused by Fr Ronan in 1965 or early 1966 when he was 15 or 16 years old.
The Vatican said the files proved that it had only learned of the accusations against Fr Ronan in 1966, after the alleged abuse had occurred.
John V Doe’s lawyer, Jeffrey Anderson of St Paul, Minnesota, took the action on his behalf, alleging that when Fr Ronan was assigned in 1955 and 1956 to Our Lady of Benburb, Servite Priory, Co Tyrone, in the archdiocese of Armagh, he molested a youth there.
It is alleged that in 1963 or 1964, Fr Ronan was removed to St Phillip’s boys school in Chicago, where it is claimed he molested three boys. The priest was transferred in 1965 to Portland, Oregon, where John V Doe, raised in a devout Catholic family, had him as his spiritual adviser.
Fr Ronan left the priesthood in 1966 when allegations of his sexual misconduct surfaced in Portland. He died in 1992.
In June 2010, the case came before the US supreme court, which refused an appeal by the Vatican to halt the legal action after the Holy See argued that a sovereign state was generally immune from law suits.
The court ruled that the lawsuit had sufficiently alleged that Fr Ronan was an employee of the Vatican acting within the scope of his employment under Oregon law.
Last April a federal judge in Portland ordered the Vatican to respond to certain requests for information from John Doe’s lawyers by tomorrow, the first time the Holy See has been forced to turn over documentation in a sex abuse case.
The documentation includes the 1966 case file with Fr Ronan’s request to be laicised, after his superiors learned of accusations that he had molested minors in Ireland.
Vatican lawyer Jeffrey Lena said yesterday the Vatican was releasing “all known documents relating to Ronan held by the Roman Curia” to help the Oregon court determine a remaining jurisdictional question in the case: whether the priest was an employee of the Holy See.
However, none of the files released relates directly to the employment question.
While Mr Lena’s suggestion that the files should help “calm down those people who are too quick to make sensational and unfair comments without taking the time to get an adequate understanding of the facts”was seen in some US media reports yesterday as a veiled criticism of the Taoiseach, Mr Lena also specifically criticised Mr Anderson in his statement.
The attorney never had any evidence to support his “calumnious accusations” that the Vatican itself had transferred Fr Ronan to Portland while knowing that he posed a danger to minors, said Mr Lena.
Mr Anderson has filed hundreds of lawsuits against priests and dioceses in the US concerning clerical sex abuse. In addition to the Portland case he has named the Holy See as a defendant in two other US lawsuits, in Milwaukee and Chicago.
Last night Mr Anderson said he would “reserve comment until the document production is received and reviewed”.
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US abuse victims’ group criticises Vatican files ‘ploy’
irishtimes.com
18 August 2011
JOANNE HUNT
A US clerical sex abuse victims’ group has described the release by the Vatican of files on a priest accused of child molestation as “a desperate, last minute ploy”.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, (Snap) said the Vatican should be releasing records relating to “thousands of child-molesting priests, nuns, bishops and seminarians, promptly”.
The statement came after the Vatican yesterday published internal files about a priest accused of molesting children in Ireland and the US.
The files, published on the Vatican Radio website, were part of documentation the Pope plans to turn over to the US lawyers of a man who says he was abused by the late Fr Andrew Ronan, a teacher at the Servites’ Our Lady of Benburb Priory in Co Tyrone.
The man, known in court papers as John V Doe, is seeking to hold the Vatican liable for the abuse. A federal judge in Portland, Oregon had ordered the Vatican to respond to requests for information from Doe’s lawyers by tomorrow, the first time the Holy See has been forced to turn over documentation in a sex abuse case.
In releasing some of the files yesterday, Vatican attorney Jeffrey Lena said the Vatican’s documentation should help “calm down those people who were too quick to make sensational and unfair comments without taking the time to get an adequate understanding of the facts”.
However a statement issued last night by the outreach director of the victims’ group, Barbara Dorris, said of the release of such documents that the Vatican “should not wait until a court eventually forces it to do so”.
“It’s clear that this is a desperate, last-minute Vatican ploy to seem ever-so-slightly less recalcitrant than it has been for decades with clergy sex crimes and cover- ups,” her statement continued.
“If anyone is tempted to see any kind of ‘silver lining’ in this, it’s important to keep in mind that the highest echelons of the Catholic hierarchy have been fighting this disclosure for nine years,” she said.
Doe’s lawyer Jeff Anderson said in a statement last night that his office had not yet received the court-ordered documents from the Vatican.
The documentation was due to include the 1966 case file including Ronan’s request to be laicised, or removed from the clerical state, after his superiors learned of accusations that he had molested minors in Ireland.
While the Vatican said yesterday that the documentation proved that it had only learned of the accusations against Ronan in 1966, after the abuse against Doe occurred, Mr Anderson said the documents released were only “a partial release of what the court has ordered”.
“The Vatican release makes no mention of existing documents containing knowledge of abuse in Ireland and the United States that Vatican protocols, issued in 1922 and 1962, require to be forwarded to the Holy See.”
Mr Anderson said the absence of the documents in the discovery “would clearly raise more questions and concerns.”
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Vatican City: Priest’s Files Online
New York Times
Published: August 17, 2011
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Vatican, reeling from unprecedented criticism over its handling of sexual abuse cases in Ireland, took the unusual step on Wednesday of publishing its internal files about a priest accused of molesting youngsters in Ireland and the United States. The files, published on the Web site of Vatican Radio, are part of the documentation the Holy See plans to turn over to American lawyers representing a man who says he was abused by the Rev. Andrew Ronan, who died in 1992. The Vatican said that the documentation culled from the Vatican’s internal personnel files proved that it had learned of the accusations against Father Ronan only in 1966, after the abuse against the plaintiff occurred.