THE Catholic Church is co-operating with a NSW inquiry after the Vatican’s representative in Australia initially claimed diplomatic immunity in response to a request for documents about two Hunter priests.
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The NSW Special Commission of Inquiry said it would be tendering documents early next week confirming the Vatican was co-operating after correspondence showed a standoff between the inquiry and Australia’s Vatican representative, Archbishop Paul Gallagher.
The commission, investigating police and Church handling of complaints about Hunter priests Denis McAlinden and Jim Fletcher, requested any ‘‘allegations, complaints, suspicions or reports’’ of the priests.
The request, on behalf of Commissioner Margaret Cunneen, SC, sought documents held in the archives of the Apostolic Nunciature in Canberra or the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome.
Archbishop Gallagher wrote to Ms Cunneen in November to note that his office was ‘‘the high diplomatic representative of the Holy See to the Commonwealth’’, covered by ‘‘the protections afforded by international agreements, including the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations’’.
While his office would assist with specific requests for information, ‘‘it would not be appropriate to seek internal communications’’.
In a response on behalf of Ms Cunneen the NSW Crown solicitor Ian Knight included a transcript of evidence given by Cardinal George Pell to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry, in which the cardinal gave a personal guarantee that ‘‘every document the Vatican had’’ would be made available to the federal Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse.
Mr Knight wrote that he hoped the guarantee extended to the NSW Special Commission headed by Ms Cunneen.
Hunter child abuse activist Peter Gogarty said the fact that the Church had raised ‘‘diplomatic immunity’’ demonstrated ‘‘the continued arrogance of the Catholic Church and its seeming insistence that it is beyond the reach of civil law in places like Australia’’.
‘‘It remains a fact that Australian citizens in the form of Catholic clergy are subject to the dictates of a ‘foreign state’ based in Europe,’’ Mr Gogarty said.
He said no one had the capacity to ensure the Vatican fully co-operate with the inquiry, and Australia’s recognition of the Catholic Church as a state was long overdue for review.
