TAOISEACH ENDA Kenny has received “thousands” of messages from around the world in response to his speech on the Vatican’s role in events relating to the issue of child abuse, he said last night.
This reflected the way people felt about this issue, he told the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal. Mr Kenny added he was “astounded” by the number of clergy who had been in touch to say it was “about time” someone in his position spoke out.
The Taoiseach received a standing ovation when he finished delivering the annual lecture in honour of Nobel laureate and former SDLP leader John Hume at the opening session of the summer School.
Referring to his Dáil speech last Wednesday on the Cloyne report, he said: “I made a few remarks this week about children, which means a lot to me, I have to say.
“I just wanted people to understand that, when I say we live in a republic with laws and responsibilities and rights, I mean it.
“The fact that I have had thousands of messages from around the world speaks for itself about the impact and the way people feel.
“The numbers of members of the clergy who have been in touch in the last few days, to say it is about time somebody spoke out about these matters in a situation like you are, has astounded me.
“I haven’t made any other comment except to say that we await the response from the Vatican.
“I like to think that part of what we do in Government is to create the environment where the innocence of children can develop naturally through their formative years,” Mr Kenny said.
He said this was in the hope, “that when they grow up and grow old they will look back with a sense of pride and a sense of respect for where they came from”.
On the economic situation, he said: “I know that there are people out there suffering with mortgages and distress, with their families gone away, with seemingly-endless disillusionment about employment.” But he said the Government was dealing with these problems: “This is the ultimate political challenge.”
Citing John Hume’s reference in his Nobel Prize to the W.B. Yeats line that “too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart”, Mr Kenny warned against an excess of “negativity” in today’s political and economic climate.
The centenary of the 1916 Rising was approaching: “This is our country’s call, I intend to answer that call by example of leadership and I ask every one of you to join the Government, our country and our people as we take off the jackets, roll up the sleeves and get down to work and prove the point that they didn’t die in vain.”