Cardinal (92) who ‘sought deal’ to bury Sex Abuse documents Resigns, Mary McAleese described encounter with Angelo Sodano as ‘devastating moment’ Sat, Dec 21, 2019, 14:57 Updated: Sat, Dec 21, 2019, 15:27 Patsy McGarry Religious Affairs Correspondent, Irish Times

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/cardinal-92-who-sought-deal-to-bury-sex-abuse-documents-resigns-1.4122879

In 2018, former president Mary McAleese revealed that Cardinal Sodano tried to secure agreement that Ireland would not attempt to access church documents surrounding the handling of allegations of clerical sex abuse then underway. Photograph: Franco Origlia/Getty Images/Nick Bradshaw/The Irish Times

My Response: Why did it take Pope Francis so long to force Cardinal Sodano out? Power? right wing forces? money?,all of the above. Finally, Pope Francis got rid of the pontifical secret policy, so now prosecutors can find out the truth.  Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP, https://arcwp.org

From article: Mary McAleese:

“He indicated that he would like, and the Vatican would like, an agreement with Ireland, a concordat with Ireland. I asked him why and it was very clear it was because he wanted to protect Vatican and diocesan archives. I have to say that I immediately said the conversation had to stop,” Prof McAleese said.

“I told him I thought it extraordinarily inappropriate and very, very dangerous to the church, if it was pursued,” she said.

What worried her most was that there were then two statutory inquiries then under way in Ireland into child abuse involving the church, she said. The Ryan commission (the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse), set up in 2000, was investigating the treatment of children in industrial schools, reformatories and orphanages, run by 18 religious congregations."