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	Liam Fay: Christian Brothers Have Their Heads above the Clouds By Liam Fay The Sunday Times May 23, 2009 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6350349.ece The canonisation of Edmund Rice is not important - seperating our education system from religious bodies is The Christian Brothers are cock-a-hoop. With the determination of men on a mission, the congregation’s finest minds have worked tirelessly for years to achieve a long-cherished dream, and now believe triumph is within their grasp. Contrary to the impression you may have gleaned in recent days, they still believe theirs is the kingdom, the power and the glory. The prize the Brothers so zealously seek has nothing to do with cleansing their order of the charnel-house stench of paedophilia, depravity and sadism. It doesn’t involve making proper reparations to the thousands of victims who were raped, tortured and enslaved by members of their fraternity. Nor does it feature any plan to come clean about the cover-ups concocted by senior administrators to protect perpetrators and avoid scandal. Far more pressing to them, it seems to me, is the campaign for the canonisation of Edmund Rice, who founded the Christian Brothers in 1802. Though some have speculated that the disgraced order may soon dissolve itself, the Brothers’ top brass are positioning themselves for a great leap forward. Like celebrity chefs chasing Michelin stars, these would-be paragons of spiritual humility are consumed by the quest to adorn their founder with a halo. Throughout the past nine years, while the inquiries of Justice Sean Ryan’s Child Abuse Commission were being resisted at almost every turn by the Christian Brothers, the congregation was assiduously promoting Rice’s ‘cause’. As one wing of the organisation was dragging the Commission through the courts, thwarting its ability to name names, another was engaged in a fatuous vanity exercise, an attempt to exalt the spiritual cachet of the order’s own name. Anyone who doubts that the corporate Brotherhood can move with urgency and enthusiasm when it chooses to should examine the history of its canonisation drive. Lavishly funded and slickly presented, the campaign for Rice’s elevation is the envy of other religious orders that feel their founders should also be ennobled. With a vast global property portfolio, the Christian Brothers are formidably rich and will spend generously when they deem it appropriate. Following years of high-level canvassing on his behalf, Rice was declared ‘Blessed’ by Pope John Paul in 1996, which is the first step towards sainthood. Emboldened by the speed with which their patron was scaling the stairway to Heaven, the Brothers intensified their efforts. In 2003, they appointed Brother Donal Blake to liaise full-time with the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and provided him with assistant staff. On several websites dedicated to the cause, Blake explains that the search is on for a “miracle of healing” in Rice’s name that would seal his claim to sanctity in the Vatican‘s eyes. “Everybody can play his/her part in this campaign by making Blessed Edmund better known and by bombarding Heaven by prayer,” he urges. Given the added trauma inflicted on abuse victims by the Brothers’ cynical approach to the Ryan Commission, their industrious devotion to this mystical malarkey is a sick joke. Nevertheless, it highlights the folly of entrusting the care and education of children to any organisation that focuses on the supernatural realm at the expense of what’s happening on Earth. By definition, these people are more interested in forging myth than facing reality. The Christian Brothers were the largest providers of residential care for boys in this country, and the Ryan report recorded more allegations against them than all other male orders combined. The Brothers were literally a law unto themselves. Until the state decouples its education system entirely from religious bodies, holy writ of one form or another will continue to reign in our schools. We can no longer be the land of both saints and scholars. Will Reynolds' tome be one worth remembering? Transworld, publishers of Albert Reynolds’ forthcoming autobiography, say they’re delighted with the 100,000-word manuscript he’s recently submitted. However, the firm insists that details of the former taoiseach’s life story will remain a closely guarded secret until the tome’s publication in September. What they fail to acknowledge is that, even after the book comes out, Reynolds himself will be among those being kept in the dark. Last year, the 76-year-old convinced the Mahon tribunal that he couldn’t give further evidence because he suffers from “cognitive impairment”. His memory, it seems, is no longer reliable. Could it be, therefore, that his memoirs will be similarly defective? Reynolds is clearly intent on securing a place in history. Ironically, bookshops may have no choice but to stock his book in the section marked Fantasy. All a matter of balance Another week like the last one, and the stock of George Lee, Fine Gael’s Dublin South candidate might collapse before polling day. Lee was aflame with righteous fury last Sunday on RTE’s The Week in Politics as he denounced the Seanad, which recently adjourned for a golfing jolly. “It’s an absolute outrage,” Lee fumed. “They need to go.” Within 48 hours Lee had recanted, placating Fine Gael senators who felt slighted by his remarks. Senate “reform” was now his catch-cry, not abolition. Already, it seems, the would-be forward-looking straight-talker has learned to back-pedal like a veteran trick cyclist. Bottled water excuse is so wet Bottled water is the new holy water. Devotees revere its “sacred” purity, despite the fact that scientific analysis reveals it’s indistinguishable from tap water. Really, it’s the marketers who possess quasi-magical powers, not the product itself. In late 2007, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland found evidence of E.coli and other bacteria in some bottled water. But, after consultation with the drinks’ industry, they declined to identify the contaminated brands and delayed publication of their report. Last week, the Dail’s Public Accounts Committee accused the FSAI of “failing consumers” and pandering to “business interests”. In its defence, the authority said it didn’t want to cause unnecessary public alarm. While a small sample of bottled water was “unfit for drinking”, and subsequently recalled, it was not “unsafe for human consumption”. Only in a world intoxicated by the gobbledygook of designer-water propagandists could such a wet distinction sound like good news. Court short What does a solicitor have to do to get struck off? A Supreme Court verdict last week suggests that even 50 counts of misconduct is no longer sufficient cause for disbarment from the legal profession. The Law Society had appealed against a High Court refusal to strike off the Dublin solicitors Henry Colley and Colm Carroll after they admitted multiple serious breaches of professional regulations. However, the Supreme Court declined to reverse the judgment. In raising the bar for expulsion, the decision lowers the Bar in public estimation.
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