There are two States in Ireland. One with its headquarters in Dail Eireann and the other in the Vatican in Rome. Most of the time this dichotomy is invisible but with the publication of the Cloyne Report into Clerical Sexual Abuse this week it surfaced. The Religious are appointed by Rome and have their primary duty to Canon law. The laity are largely citizens of Ireland and are subject to State law. Under Canon Law the protection of the Church seems paramount whereas under State law every citizen is held to be equal. When the Taoiseach was asked if Government legislation would override the secrecy of the confessional, with priests being obliged to pass on evidence of child abuse obtained in that context, Mr Kenny said: “The law of the land should not be stopped by a crozier or by a collar….bishops who were caught up in a situation where guilt applies here should be subject to the law of the land.” Pity the Bishops caught in this bind. One way out was to write two different reports on clerical abuse sending the true account to Rome and the false one to his Priests enabling them to ignore the Irish Church’s own guidelines. Astonishingly these guidelines have never received Vatican approval leaving the Bishops, with the one exception of Diarmuid Martin, in a ship without a rudder. What does the Bible have to say to all this? Jesus said His Kingdom was not of this world (St John Chapter 18 verse 36) – so we have separation of church from state. Rome’s answer to this is to create a Vatican State! Scripture says we are to confess our sins to one another. (James chapter 5 verse 16). Rome sets up the confessional and takes upon herself the notion that God dispenses forgiveness through her priesthood. The Bible says God only can forgive sins. (St Mark chapter 2 verse 5) Pity the penitent who wishes to confess clerical abuse. The “seal of the confessional” designed to protect the sinner, works against the victim as the many cases of continuing abuse demonstrates. The abused has nowhere to go, no one to turn to. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” St Matthew Chapter 11 verse 28. It is only in Christ that forgiveness is to be found. He has the authority (St Matthew chapter 9 verse 6). That authority was delegated to all the disciples (St John 20 verse 23) and then to all believers in Jesus (1 John chapter 2 verse 1) who simply point the repentant sinner to the Saviour. The simplicity of the Gospel is hard to find in an institution or a State but by God’s grace it can be passed on by believers who themselves have received from Jesus, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”