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VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican, reeling from unprecedented
criticism over its handling of sexual abuse cases in Ireland, took
the unusual step Wednesday of publishing its internal files about a
priest accused of molesting youngsters in Ireland and the
U.S.
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The files published on the website of Vatican Radio are part of the
documentation the Holy See plans to turn over to U.S. lawyers
representing a man who says he was abused by the late Rev. Andrew
Ronan. The man, known in court papers as John V. Doe, is seeking to
hold the Vatican liable for the abuse.
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A federal judge in Portland, Oregon ordered the Vatican to respond
to certain requests for information from Doe’s lawyers by Friday,
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 Ronan’s request to be laicized, or removed from
the clerical state, after his superiors learned of accusations that
he had molested minors in Ireland.
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The Vatican said Wednesday that the documentation culled from the
Vatican’s internal personnel files proved that it had only learned
of the accusations against Ronan in 1966, after the abuse against
Doe occurred.
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The Vatican’s decision to publish a selection of the discovery
documentation on its website comes amid unprecedented criticism of
its handling of sex abuse cases in Ireland, and as it still seeks
to recover from the fallout over the abuse scandal that erupted
last year. Thousands of people in Europe and elsewhere reported
they were raped and molested by priests as children while bishops
covered up the crimes and the Vatican turned a blind
eye.
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Last month, an independent report into the Irish diocese of Cloyne
accused the Vatican of sabotaging efforts by Irish Catholic bishops
to report clerical sex abuse cases to police. The accusations
prompted Irish lawmakers to make an unprecedented denunciation of
the Holy See’s influence in the predominantly Catholic country,
with heated words in particular from Prime Minister Enda
Kenny.
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In a statement accompanying the document release Wednesday, Vatican
attorney Jeffrey Lena said the Vatican’s documentation 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” – an apparent reference to Kenny’s
denunciation.
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The Vatican recalled its ambassador to Ireland over the ruckus to
help prepare an official response, which is expected in the coming
weeks.
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According to the Holy See, the documentation released Wednesday
includes the 1966 case file held by the Vatican’s office for
members of religious orders, known at the time as the Sacred
Congregation for Religious, containing documents in English,
Italian and Latin related to Ronan’s request to be
laicized.
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The file contains a letter written by the Chicago-based provincial
of the Order of Servants of Mary detailing accusations that Ronan
had abused students while he was a teacher at the Servites’ Our
Lady of Benburb Priory in Ireland.
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The provincial wrote that he had “removed” Ronan immediately from
Ireland after discovering the abuse accusations in 1959. Ronan
began working in Chicago and was later transferred to Portland. He
died in 1992.
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Lena said in a statement that the files show that the Holy See
didn’t learn of the accusations against Ronan until 1966, after the
abuse against Doe occurred in Portland and after the laicization
request was sent to Rome.
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He said the Vatican was releasing “all known documents relating to
Ronan held by the Roman Curia” to help the Oregon court determine
the remaining jurisdictional question in the case: whether Ronan
was an employee of the Holy See, which is critical to determining
whether the Vatican can be held liable for the abuse Doe
endured.
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None of the documents released Wednesday relate directly to that
core employment question. Rather, they support the Vatican’s
contention that it had no prior knowledge of Ronan’s crimes before
1966, that it wasn’t responsible for transferring him to the U.S.
or to Portland, and isn’t liable for the abuse Doe
suffered.
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Lena said Doe’s attorney, Jeffrey Anderson, never had any evidence
to support his “calumnious accusations” that the Vatican itself had
transferred Ronan to Portland while knowing that he posed a danger
to minors.
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Doe’s lawyers, Lena said “have nonetheless chosen to misuse the
legal system as a vehicle to pursue a broader agenda – a decision
that has misled the public and wasted considerable
resources.”
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Anderson has filed hundreds of lawsuits against priests and
dioceses in the U.S. concerning priestly sex abuse; in addition to
the Portland case he has named the Holy See as a defendant in two
other U.S. lawsuits, in Milwaukee and Chicago.
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Email requests seeking comment from Anderson weren’t immediately
returned.
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—
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Online:
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Vatican documentation is at: “text-decoration: none; color: #000066;” href=
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