Call for expulsion of papal nuncio

THE PAPAL nuncio should be expelled if he could not give a reason for the contempt with which he had treated the Murphy commission’s calls for information, Ivana Bacik (Lab) said.

Joe O’Toole (Ind) said the Vatican state ambassador should be called in by the Minister for Foreign Affairs “in order to explain himself on this situation”. Ms Bacik said the Minister had already expressed doubts about the nuncio’s behaviour. He should now call him in and expel him if he could not provide an explanation.

There had been reports that the Catholic Church was lobbying against the Civil Partnership Bill, which was about to be debated by the Dáil. That was inexcusable behaviour by a religious institution. Mr O’Toole said that in his view the contempt with which the Murphy report had been treated by the Vatican state and its ambassador at the very least called for a re-examination of our relationship with the Vatican.

However, he did not have any time for the calls from party leaders for the sacking of a bishop. The operations of a church were not the business of politicians. They had seen enough of that under communist regimes, where Christians had been prevented from practising their religion. This type of approach had reached a “giddy limit” in Switzerland with the referendum on whether minarets could be built on mosques.

The first response to the Murphy report should be to ensure that the hierarchy and bishops were taken away from the role of school patrons.

David Norris (Ind) said that all of Christendom had been shamed by the behaviour of clergy. The position of the papal nuncio must be called into question.

Denis O’Donovan (FF) said he had a deep feeling of sadness for the hundreds of thousands of upstanding religious people who had been damaged by the impact of the report.

Fine Gael leader in the House Frances Fitzgerald said the report should mark a defining moment in the relations between church and State. Ned O’Sullivan (FF) said closure would not come on this issue until there was an audit of every diocese.