Pope Benedict refused to allow Vatican officials to testify in an investigation by an Irish commission into alleged child sex abuse by priests, according to U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, The Guardian newspaper reported.

Benedict was also reportedly furious when Vatican officials were called upon in Rome, The Guardian reported Saturday.

The Murphy Commission of Inquiry into sexual and physical abuse “offended many in the Vatican,” according to a cable dated February 26, 2010.

“The Vatican believes the Irish government failed to respect and protect Vatican sovereignty during the investigations,” it said.

On Saturday, the Vatican press office declined to comment on the content of the cables but decried the leaks as a matter of “extreme gravity.”

The U.S. ambassador to the Holy See also condemned the leaks and said the Vatican and America cooperate in promoting universal values.

Other latest revelations include that Britain’s Vatican ambassador feared anti-Catholic violence in Britain after Benedict offered to accept traditionalist Anglicans into the Roman Catholic Church.

Catholic-Anglican relations faced their worst crisis in 150 years because of the offer, which undercut the authority of Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the cable quoted Ambassador Francis Campbell as saying after the offer last year.

Five Anglican bishops in Britain announced last month that they would join the Catholic Church early next year, in response to the offer made in October 2009 to Anglican clergy opposed to the ordination of women bishops in the Church of England.

The cable, dated November 30, 2009 and published by The Guardian, reflected concerns that have since eased. Tensions that it predicted for the pope’s visit to Britain in September this year did not materialize.

Immunity granted to Vatican officials
According to the cable detailing the Vatican’s refusal to cooperate in the abuse investigation, the Vatican believed opposition politicians in Ireland were publicly putting pressure on the government to vilify the Vatican just to make “political hay”.

The Irish government, meanwhile, wanted “to be seen as co-operating with the investigation” because its churches and education department were also involved in the scandal.

The Irish ambassador’s deputy, Helena Keleher, told U.S. diplomats that her government eventually acquiesced to the Vatican and granted their officials immunity from testifying, the Guardian reported.

“Foreign ambassadors are not required or expected to appear before national commissions,” the cable said.

Still, the Irish commission was able to gather enough evidence and testimony to conclude that some bishops had put the Catholic church before the victims by covering up claims of abuse, the Guardian reported.

In the cable describing the British fears over anti-Catholic violence, U.S. ambassador to the Vatican Miguel Diaz said British ambassador Campbell noted that England’s Catholics were a minority and mostly of Irish origin.

“There is still latent anti-Catholicism in some parts of England and it may not take much to set it off,” it said, paraphrasing his words. “The outcome could be discrimination or in isolated cases even violence against this minority.”

Speaking after the two churchmen met at the Vatican last month, Campbell said the pope had “put Williams in an impossible situation” and the archbishop’s cautious reaction — meant to avoid harming relations with Rome — angered some Anglicans.

Diaz ended the cable asking “whether the damage to inter-Christian relations was worth it — especially since the number of disaffected Anglicans that will convert is likely to be a trickle rather than a wave.”

Another cable dated November 9, 2009 said Campbell told Diaz that the Catholic Church would face “unforeseen obstacles” if many traditionalist Anglicans took up Benedict’s offer.

“A large transition of Anglican converts could overwhelm the financial resources of many dioceses,” it cited him as saying.

No consideration for Church of England
The Anglicans most likely to make the switch were the most conservative, he said.

“In uniting traditionalist Anglicans with the Catholic Church, the pope is bringing together two groups strongly committed to defending Europe’s Christian heritage — a theme he strongly champions,” it added.

The cable cited an unnamed source as saying Williams was probably informed about the offer only a day before it was announced. When he expressed concern about it, he was told the Vatican had made its decision and was going ahead.

According to the November 30 cable, Campbell felt the Vatican had acted without considering what its move would mean for the Church of England, mother church for the world’s 80 million Anglicans, or their spiritual leader Williams.

“The Vatican decision seems to have been aimed primarily at Anglicans in the U.S. and Australia, with little thought given to how it would affect the center of Anglicanism, England, or the Archbishop of Canterbury,” it said in relating his view.

The Vatican announced last month that its first so-called ordinariate for Anglican converts would be established in Britain. Bishops and priests would join the Church in the first half of the year, followed by lay people wanting to switch.