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	Too Late, the Bishops Begin to Grasp Scale of Abuse Disaster Irish Independent May 31, 2009 http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/too-late-the-bishops-begin-to-grasp-scale-of-abuse-disaster-1756572.html Had the hierarchy listened earlier to sympathetic critics, its congregation might be less devastated now, writes Colum Kenny 'HIT him again, he's a priest." The words of Dermot Clifford summing up the alleged attitude of RTE current affairs towards Irish clergy. Today, Clifford is Archbishop of Cashel and Emly and one of the most important authorities in the Irish Catholic Church. The Pope recently made him Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Cloyne when Bishop John Magee was let step aside voluntarily after failing to follow church guidelines on child abuse. Clifford's words were written almost 30 years ago, on his way up as diocesan secretary in the Diocese of Kerry. He was objecting to a programme about the exercise of episcopal power on the Beara Peninsula that an RTE team -- including this writer -- had made. Clifford wrote in 1980 that, "It is my opinion that those who feel it is their vocation to curb the influence of the clergy are present in disproportionate numbers in the Current Affairs section of RTE". Exchanging private letters with director-general George Waters, he said that such people "think the priest is fair game". The future archbishop added ominously, "It may be that the edge will be taken off their arrogance before the dispute finishes". Last week, too late, the bishops of Ireland finally appeared to realise that the way in which church authorities have exercised power for more than half a century has caused incalculable damage to Christianity. Led by the example of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who was not trained at Maynooth and who has never fitted into the mould of the Irish hierarchy, other bishops grasped the scale of the disaster that has befallen their church. Yet, even still, both hierarchy and State dragged their heels. For days, the Taoiseach proved as incapable of resolute action and leadership on the Ryan Commission Report as he has been on the economy. Finally Noel Dempsey was sent on Questions and Answers to indicate that the Government would after all make further demands on the religious orders. You know that Fianna Fail is in trouble when Mr Demspey appears on Questions and Answers, his face etched with concern. Having come earlier that day from launching a new train service in Cork that will not actually run until after the local elections, Dempsey was now launching a late response to public revulsion at the content of Judge Sean Ryan's report on abuse. It took even longer for the Conference of Religious of Ireland (Cori) to grasp reality. Prompted by the hierarchy, who even yet pulled back when it came to issuing a public statement and so worded it weakly, Cori members conceded that they would give more money. But Cori members still tried to hang onto power over the disposal of unspecified sums that they say they are prepared to pay out. There is talk of the Christian Brothers, for example, setting up a trust fund "at arms' length". There is unlikely to be anything democratic about that process, even within the ranks of Catholicism. Those who run the trust will be hand-picked by church authorities and their values will reflect a particular type of Catholicism. The details of any Christian Brother trust should be examined closely, including its current educational trust. For religious orders to seek to continue to exercise power over those whom they abused, even at arm's length, is insensitive to say the least. The disaster that church authorities have visited on their church is not simply about the victims of abuse or about the scandal that such abuse gives to non-Catholics, bad and all as each of those are. The disaster goes to the heart of the human condition. They have sown despair and disbelief in people's hearts. Throughout the 20th century there were always a few Catholic lay people and dissident priests or nuns those who pointed to a different model of Catholicism. They risked contempt, intellectual and emotional abuse and repression. Recent admissions of error on the part of the hierarchy or religious orders have seldom seemed quite heartfelt enough. There have been few resignations, and no grand reform or humble change of church structures, in response to Fr Michael Mernagh's walk of atonement from Cobh to Dublin. When I was writing articles for the Sunday Press back in the Seventies, the then editor explained that he would not publish a piece critical of the criminalisation of homosexuality in Ireland because it would mean certain terms appearing in his family newspaper. Last week the word "buggery" was scattered across the airwaves morning, noon and night, and the public assaulted with vile details of the sadistic abuse of children. Our willingness to use such language openly is a weird kind of progress, one facilitated in part by the distastefully clinical debates around abortion that the bishops and their lay fellow-travellers foisted on the Irish people when inappropriate and unworkable referenda were brought before the voters. Had church authorities listened then and earlier to sympathetic lay, clerical and media critics, they might now find their congregations less devastated by disgust and loss of faith. Both Archbishop Martin and Cori's Sean Healy this month opened a door to a better way forward, but there is still no certainly that they will be able to lead their colleagues through it. Prof Colum Kenny teaches journalism at DCU Soapbox, back page
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