Enda Kenny stands by his attack on the Vatican - VIDEO & POLL

Bravo! Enda Kenny. Piercingly eloquent. Go get' em!

saying it like it is - now he needs to protect the children that are fleeing ireland looking for work. Shatter's input probably gave his speech delivery a smoother flow.

I"ve been trying to get a copy of this speech since Enda Kenny made it, especially once the Vatican responded. I can only say that the comparison between the two reactions to the Cloyne report, one by a state government and one by a religious body founded by Jesus Christ himself, are sadly and tragically telling. It is the state which seeks to protect the children rather than Christ's church. What amuses me is that the Vatican responded as if Kenny stood up and shouted epithets at the Vatican's pristine head. He had just as much to say about Ireland's lack of response. His speech was considered, heartfelt, and cathartic for a nation that has been slowly uncovering this cancer for the last ten years. I wish I could say I was surprised by the Vatican's continued intransigence. Like I've said before, they seem to think they're Thomas a'Becket and Kenny is Henry II. Canon law is not paramount when the church breaks its own charter. I stand wholeheartedly behind the Taoiseach and hope he can see his reforms passed.

The Vatican says: Standards of conduct, appropriate to civil society or the workings of a democracy, cannot be purely and simply applied to the Church. Ireland says NO to that.

Enda Kenny is absolutely right when he describes the church as dysfunctional. He would have full support from me in any action against that organisation in Ireland which serves to get it through the skulls of the hierarchy that they are subject to Irish law. Canon law is not promulgated in the Oireachtas not debated there and the President does not sign canon law edicts. It is therefore alien to the justice system in particular and to the operation of a Republic in general and must be rejected whenever an attempt to substitute canon law for the law of the land is attempted by priests and church supporters. We all know by now the damage that can be caused by letting these people assume their golf-club rules have any legal force.

Of course he's correct. There is no reforming that ancient, arrogant, tottering system and their shocking 25 page rebuttal proves it. It's like a kind of old worlde government ministery that can't connect with the modern era. They come blinking into the sunlight only to go to ground again at the first opportunity.

With 92% of the voters clicking "Yes" to agree that Enda Kenny should stand by his July 20 attack on the Vatican, it's clear that he has the full support of his people. Some of his speech also expressed sorrow over the Irish government's past failures to legislate and to put agency protections in place for children. Probably most voters would agree with those comments also. The Vatican is not only the center of a religious organization, but also a sovereign state with a seat at the UN. Cooperation among states is the norm. I find the Taoiseach's comments about Vatican intransigence and obstruction defensible with facts that have been well publicized over several years. More recent refusals by the Vatican to cooperate in Irish investigations of predatory pedophiles are also well known. The Vatican has refused to open its 'secret archives,' its files on pedophiles, to the Irish state. There is no excuse for the Vatican to refuse, with no explanation as usual, the legitimate need for information by Irish state officials. Until Vatican officials open the files sent to the Curia by bishops in various countries, until they make full disclosure, every country should be keeping the pressure on.