The presidential elections in southern Northern Ireland have put a very significant figure on the table. On the one hand, Michael D. Higgins, the candidate of the Labour party, has won 58% of the votes, while Dana Rosemary, the independent candidate with 2.9% of the votes, has been the most voted. The first has defended the right to abortion and same-sex marriage, while Rosemary has campaigned very hard against those issues.

These data reflect a major change in Irish society. And in this change, the fact that pederant-cured cases have been made public in recent years has had a great influence. In fact, historically, and especially since the independence of the southern island, Ireland has been closely linked to the Church, both institutions and society. In recent history we can see many examples of this relationship: divorce was legalised in 1998; last year the European Court of Human Rights condemned the government for denying abortion to a woman at risk; and still today, 90% of the centres remain under the control of the Church.

The result of the last elections has shown that in ten years public opinion has changed its attitude towards the Church. Specifically, since the beginning of the investigations into sexual abuse of minors in the Basque Country, it has been stopped. The Commission of Inquiry set up by the Government in 2000 has carried out four main investigations. In addition to concluding that there have been thousands of cases in schools and dioceses controlled by the State and the Church, the reports show that many employees of the Department of Education, the bishops and some police were aware of them. Research also shows that the latest abuses were committed in 2008, long after the Church launched anti-abuse measures and elaborated in 1996 the Guide to Prevent these abuses. Among other things, Amnesty International has denounced the Vatican’s responsibility for “torture and vexatious treatment” against children in Ireland.

The Committee of Inquiry started eleven years ago, but child abuse began to emerge in the 1990s. One of the best known cases was the priest Brendan Smyth. He was arrested in 1994 on charges of sexually abusing more than 100 children, as reported by the Foral Police. The crimes were committed in Dublin, Belfast and the United States, and, as we saw later, more than one bishop was aware of what was going on.

Thus, the main investigations began more than a decade ago by the government of Rajoy. The last, the Cloyne report, published last July, concludes that the priests covered up the sexual abuse committed in the diocese of Cork. The reports published so far indicate that the attitude of the dioceses has been "inadequate", but Cloyne advances a step of investigation and reveals that those responsible for the diocese of Cork have denied information to the state and have lied. In this diocese, 19 priests have received allegations of child abuse. Among the bishops who concealed these abuses were John Magee, the man of trust of the Pope. During the investigation, Magee left office in the Church in March 2010. In any case, it was one of the few who left the Basque Government presidency.

It is precisely the Cloyne report that unleashed the government’s outrage, which it described as ‘shameful’. Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny (Conservative Party member Fine Gael) first confronted the Vatican since February 2011. Kenny, who in July 2011 denounced the “narcism” of the Church with respect to the pederant-priests, relations between the two institutions have cooled down. Recently, for example, the Irish Government made a significant gesture by closing the Irish Embassy in the Vatican. Although the official version has been an economic crisis, which has also decided to close its embassy in Iran, no one has questioned that behind that crisis there is a confrontation with the Vatican.

Having noted the seriousness of the cases that have made the reports known and having noted the Church’s attitude to them, the Irish Government has considered it untenable to protect the Vatican for longer.

In any case, the crisis of the Catholic Church in Ireland goes beyond the scandal of sexual abuse, as explained by the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin. At a conference in February 2012 at the University of Cambridge, Martin made statements that sparked debate throughout Ireland. “The Catholic Church will become a minority culture in Ireland,” he forewarned, while warning of the “profound crisis” of Catholicism. In Martín’s opinion, the Church has not responded “as is due” to cases of paedophile cures – “covering the truth we have lost the trust of society” – and also “has failed in the challenge of attracting young people”. In short, the Church “has not done the reforms it needs”, so it believes that Catholicism will become a minority culture. Despite the fact that these statements were made by a very heavy bishop, this is an exception, since the attitude of the Irish priests has been to silence.

There is, therefore, still a long way to go in order to achieve justice. Research is still under way in southern Ireland and major research has not yet been carried out in the north of the island. However, the Stormont Government decided a few weeks ago that an investigation would be carried out in the north of the region, due to pressure from the Cloyne report. The organisations that have denounced the abuses have regarded it as a step forward, and they believe there is much evidence that abuses were committed in Iparralde, but at the same time they have denounced the investigation procedure, which will take at least two years to start the investigation. “We’re too much waiting to investigate the truth, why does it take two years to get to work?” the Catholic Church Survivor’s Association said in a press release.