The catholic bishops in Ireland are to conduct exhaustive investigations, in which they will follow up all known allegations over a period of some 62 years. It will be an open process, with all results fully published.

Is it just coincidence, I wonder, that they take this welcome, but long overdue, initiative the week after the Irish government announced a state inquiry? Well I don't want to be unduly cynical, but I recall the Vatican giving a (catholic) scholar, John Cornwell, access to its archives so he could set the record straight about Pius XII and the nazis. That co-operation was suddenly withdrawn as it became obvious that the evidence of the archives exposed the full scale of Pacelli's connivnce with Hitler. (The resulting book was called Hitler's Pope.)

Annraoi, who thinks this thread is rabidly anti-catholic and that the child-abuse scandals are just an excuse for flaying the church, may like to note what Ireland's two seniormost clerics said about the Fortune/Comiskey business, so graphically exposed by the BBC. In a joint statement, Cardinal Desmond Connell and Archbishop Sean Brady (themselves now under prssure to resign) said: "It is a scandal which has evoked entirely justified outrage."

Here's a link to the BBC's latest on the scandals. There are several interesting links to follow from there, including to the documentary about Fortune and Comiskey. The poster who wondered whether the scandals might one day reach as high as the pope may be interested to note that the programme was called "Suing the Pope."

By the way, an archbishop in Poland is one of the most recent to be planning that trip to Rome to formalise his resignation. Since he continues to deny the horrors alleged against him (and may be innocent for all I know), I hope Annraoi will take note that this particular resignation results from a Vatican inquiry, not a media witch-hunt.