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	Gail Walker: 'Media Priest' Right to Break Abuse Silence Belfast Telegraph [Ireland] October 24, 2006 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/opinion/story.jsp?story=711302 It's a slammer headline to make senior figures in the Catholic Church blanche. The most famous priest in Ireland, Fr Brian D'Arcy, says that he, too, was abused - and by priests. There are those who will dismiss the revelations as a bid for more of the limelight. A newspaper columnist and the host of a Radio Ulster show, Fr D'Arcy is viewed by some as something of a 'media priest.' And it's precisely because of that high profile 'Mr Nice Guy' image that the revelations are such a big risk. After all, if Daniel O'Donnell wore a collar, he'd be Fr D'Arcy instead of Daniel O'Donnell. Many of his audience simply won't want to hear of any of that type of unpleasantness. But Fr D'Arcy deserves only praise and support for speaking out. His autobiography, A Different Journey, makes for grim reading. He was first abused when he was 10 and attending school in Omagh. A religious brother would make him lie across his knees while he spanked him. Too young to understand and too trusting, he says he could not "even allow myself to think that the brother was doing anything wrong". But eight years later, training for the priesthood in Dublin, he refused to allow his second abuser - a fellow Passionist - to continue to take advantage of him. In ghastly detail he describes how the older priest asked him to visit his room and proceeded to "groom" him. The young D'Arcy was asked to rub his sore leg, but as the nightly visits continued, soon found he was being used to "facilitate" a sex act. When D'Arcy realised what was happening and refused to have anything more to do with him, the priest threatened to have him put out of the order. Years later that same priest, when he was dying, sent for him and told him what he was to say at his funeral. "I did and said exactly as he asked," writes Fr D'Arcy. "Manipulator to the last." This is disturbing stuff, but the point of it all is that Fr D'Arcy raises some serious questions about the modern condition of the Catholic priesthood. Celibacy, married priests and the ordination of women are still the key issues as Catholicism struggles to cope with scandal. Nothing new there. But Fr D'Arcy's real contribution is the lesson that can be drawn from his own experience. This is no tale of a malcontent with an axe to grind, but the life story of someone who was abused but went on to flourish in his vocation. Fr D'Arcy has always been a provocative figure - chaplain to the entertainment industry, columnist for decades in Ireland's first Sunday tabloid (where readers turned the page from a topless model to his 'little bit of religion') and radio and TV personality. And all of this without conceding a fraction of his pastoral responsibilities - he remained Fr D'Arcy, Catholic priest. One result of his populist mission was to demystify priests for Protestants. His natural charm and good humour about modern life struck a chord in Northern Ireland, where his quick-witted Christianity appeared so much more capable of dealing with liberal attitudes than more conventional, stern and remote Church figures. Fr D'Arcy has always known exactly what he was doing, from the moment he took up his column in the Sunday World. He wasn't just the first priest to reach a popular audience, but the first cleric to realise Ireland was changing, becoming more urban, much younger and less attached to the old certainties. It was the 1970s. He seized the chance to reach the people who had stopped going to any church on Sundays, but who lay on in bed, recovered from hangovers or played golf in Fair Isle sweaters. Just as he knew what he was doing then, he knows what he is doing now - asking vital, if uncomfortable questions. Over the years, there have been times when Fr D'Arcy has been lampooned, most memorably by the late Dermot Morgan, who based his 'Father Trendy' character on him. But the cleric's authority survived that and will survive the shock of these disclosures. Wake up before you go-go It's not that George Michael is lighting up in front of our very eyes ? he's burning up. The singer is engulfed in controversy yet again, this time for smoking cannabis in a TV interview for The South Bank Show. "This is the only drug worth taking," the 43-year-old singer tells interviewer Melvyn Bragg. "This stuff keeps me sane and happy." No, it doesn't. It keeps him deluded. This kind of TV exposure is on a par with George Best's infamous inebriated Wogan appearance - simply drawing attention to the fact that a star has a very serious problem. In recent years, Michael has committed what would have amounted to career suicide for virtually anyone else. And it seems he's beyond help - even wise old Sir Elton's remonstrations with him resulted in a public falling out. But Sir Elton saw then what is becoming clear to the rest of us now. His own troubles with drink and drugs and sexuality were played out largely behind the scenes. They nearly killed him, though he thought at the time he was doing great. George Michael's 'difficulties' have been played out on the front pages. And he's doing great too! He's had to pretend everything he's been caught at is a virtue and a career choice - from being arrested for gay cruising to taking drugs. Even in the sycophantic confines of a South Bank Show special - the arty equivalent of Songs of Praise - he can't resist being just a touch controversial. Of course, liberal Bragg continues with the interview, but I bet if George had whipped out a Park Drive instead of a joint, Melvyn would have thrown a fit. Yes, it's all a lifestyle thing. And the attention paid to him by the media is a result of his fame and huge wealth. But George hasn't noticed that the only reason he makes headlines now is because of his lifestyle, because all he seems capable of producing now is a string of cheap stunts. Not a string of hits. Bush-whacked? Oh dear. The audience bites back! Barbara Streisand has apologised for telling a member of the audience to "shut the f*** up" for having the temerity to heckle her as the singer launched into a series of anti-George Bush 'jokes' during a concert. After a man in the audience stood up and asked La Diva: "What is this, a political fundraiser?", the singer snapped back: "If you can't take a joke, why don't you leave and get your money back?" Which the unfortunate man duly did. After the star apologised to the audience - "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have lost it" - the Streisand camp are now implying that they are the subject of some organised pro-Bush stalking, alleging a similiar incident at a previous concert. Oh yeah. Does it never cross Babs' mind that perhaps punters might be a might touchy having their political beliefs ridiculed by a multi-millionaire singer and film star - especially when you've paid quite a bit of hard-earned cash for the privilege. Perhaps La Streisand should heed her own foul-mouthed advice and just concentrate on the singing. Sheer madness? According to what's described as a 'bombshell' autobiography, his ex-mistress Jackie 'Legs' Robinson says that Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair confessed he had gay sex with a pal. "A bisexual friend said he had been sleeping with Johnny for years. I asked Johnny - it was true," she writes. You have to admit these people enjoy a rare kind of celebrity. Like a grotesque Kerry or Jordan or Chantelle, they get the full Hello/tabloid treatment, yet they're only famous for being killers or sleeping with killers. Presumably there's a market for it somewhere but it makes you think what a sick society we really are. This isn't really celebrity gossip. This is about an ophan maker and widow maker. And the most shocking angle of all? Apparently it's that Adair may have been bisexual. I'm sure that disclosure is a comfort to the bereaved.
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