Irish Association of Catholic Priests protest Cardinal Timothy Dolan's report

Ask Archbishops to “repudiate the report” on Rome Irish college by NY cardinal

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The Association of Catholic Priest has strongly protested against Cardinal Timothy Dolan's visitation report on the Irish College in Rome.

The report recommended that priests on the staff at the college's seminary be replaced.

According to the Irish Times, the association called on Ireland’s four Irish archbishops, trustees of the college, and bishops of the priests concerned, “to publicly repudiate this report in the strongest possible terms and to support the priests involved in seeking to restore their reputations."

They protested “in the strongest possible terms against the methodology and conclusions” of the Cardinal's report, saying it had “effectively destroyed the reputations of priests, who have given lifelong service to the Irish Catholic Church, without giving them a right of reply to the allegations made against them."

They also found it “unacceptable that a report to the pope, on a sensitive issue, should be conducted in such an incompetent fashion” and said “no court of law would treat people in such a way."

The four Irish priests at the college, “as clerics, are entitled under Canon Law to their good name. Canon 220 states that ‘No one may unlawfully harm the good reputation which a person enjoys . . .’,” they said, while “civil law also protects a person’s good name through the laws of libel.”

They said it was “ironic ... that it was precisely the failure of church superiors to follow either canon or civil law in abuse cases which led to the Apostolic Visitation in the first place."

The Cardinal's report not only undermined the reputation of priests who had not been given a right of reply, it also undermined “the credibility of the whole visitation process.”

They said it was “disturbing, indeed frightening” that “what a draft response from the four Irish archbishops called ‘a deep prejudice’ appears to have ‘coloured the visitation’ from the outset and ‘led to the hostile tone and content of the report’.”

The judgment of the four archbishops seemed “vindicated in the clear efforts made by Cardinal Dolan’s team to find evidence to support the college’s “gay-friendly” reputation.

While the report did not find such evidence, it still persisted in giving a detailed account of specific allegations and then went on to state that it did not find any evidence to support same.

It begged “the question as to why such detail is included in the report."

The Cardinal's conclusion that “the overwhelming majority of the seminarians are committed to a faithful, chaste lifestyle” did “not justify the detailed, even prurient reporting and naming of individuals and accusations.”

If the accusations were not substantiated, “why not just say so? Is this just incompetence or perhaps homophobia?

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