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	Church Will Fight Hard to Preserve Its 'Divine Right' But the Christian Brothers' Version of Morality Is Starting to Crumble, Writes Emer O'Kelly Irish Independent January 31, 2010 http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/church-will-fight-hard-to-preserve-its-divine-right-2041167.html IRELAND -- Nearly one-third of people in this country think the Catholic Church should maintain control of the primary school system. And more than half the population thinks that, whether it maintains control or not, the Catholic Church will change to prevent child abuse at the hands of clerics happening again. That means there is an unsettlingly high number of people in this country, despite all the scandal, the trauma, the pain and the shame, in the schools and outside them, who do not believe the Church will change but are still perfectly happy for it to go on its dictatorial way, unchecked by the civil authorities, and having total control of the welfare and moral formation of the nation's children. No wonder Cardinal Sean Brady felt confident enough on Thursday to launch Catholic Schools Week 2010 and inaugurate a new Catholic Schools Partnership. The theme, by the way, is that Catholic schools are "a light for every generation", while the Partnership, according to Bishop Leo O'Reilly of Kilmore, marks the completion of a cherished goal to establish an association which will act as an "advocate" for Catholic education into the future. But 61 per cent of people polled by MRBI for the Irish Times during the week believe the Church should give up the control it now exercises through Boards of Management in the primary school system. Twenty eight per cent were not in favour, which is roughly two to one in favour of kicking them out. Sadly, 11 per cent had no opinion. Presumably that 11 per cent have never thought what it must be like to shiver in the darkness, not knowing when the predator will strike again. That, let us not forget, is what is at the root of the belated and latent surge to take control of the primary school system from the Catholic Church: the destruction of innocence, leading to the possible emotional and sexual crippling of entire lives. The Church, in the persons of the bishops and priests who controlled the schools as "patrons" and "managers", behaved like dictators for generations. The Catholic Schools Partnership proves that they plan to continue, refusing to allow their dictat to be questioned, devising and imposing the syllabus under the mantle of "consultation" with the "Catholic ethos" controlling all subjects. But maybe the writing is on the wall. Until now, parents, having been educated under the system, had the power of analysis and criticism bred out of them at an early age. There was a smug sense that Catholicism, certainly at its best, couldn't possibly be objectionable to anyone. That was in the "good old days", the days when that blind acceptance of the power of the Church allowed its wicked, perverted officials, of which we now know there were (and presumably are) hundreds, to destroy children's lives: unhindered, and unchecked, protected, supported and winked at by their power-obsessed superiors who cared and seem still to care, only for their own supremely arrogant reputation and authority. "Sure, you never see a priest or a nun in the schools these days; how can you say they're Catholic?" has been the frequent mantra. How could anyone object to the benign non-control of the Church, which had "done so much for the education of the poor over the centuries"? But in Ireland the State paid the Church handsomely for that education, filling the Vatican coffers so generously that Ireland was a "favoured child" of the Church. And the men and women queued up meekly each September to enrol a new generation in these autocratic institutions, trustingly and unthinkingly handing over total control of their children's moral and educational welfare. After all, "I'm grateful to the brothers/sisters for the good education I got." But we're starting to think straight at last. The Christian Brothers' version of morality that asks no questions is crumbling before our eyes. At least, it is for two-thirds of us. Our legislature are products of the old system; they see little reason for profound change, because they were educated within it and trained from an early age to accept its ethos. But now they are being pushed to see things differently, because "ordinary" people are starting to ask the sort of profound questions that were beaten out of them for generations. Ironically, none of it might ever have changed if the twisted men in clerical garb had been handed over to the civil authorities to answer for their crimes against children. You can push humanity just so far. And the point too far for normal decent human beings is when they see a child suffering needlessly. That is why 60 per cent of people surveyed last week said they believed control of the primary schools should be taken from the Church. They are no longer prepared to be grateful to the institution which protected the torturers of their children. The wonderful Diarmuid Martin, the only beacon of hope in the morass of duplicity and arrogance that is the Irish Catholic Church, is in favour of it handing over control of many of the primary schools. But even he has said that he would favour this only if there were guarantees of their Catholic ethos being preserved. So, he favours only a modest stripping of Church power. Yet he is increasingly a hate figure within the Church, proving that his fellows have learned nothing and will learn nothing. They still believe in their own divine right, and will spit, scratch and kick to preserve it. The current edition of the Irish Catholic carries copies of correspondence between Dr Martin and the former Auxilliary Bishop of Dublin, Dermot O'Mahony (one of those severely indicted in the findings of the Murphy report into Church handling of the sexual abuse of children). O'Mahony circulated copies of this correspondence to the Council of Priests, and it includes the breathtaking allegation that, "To suggest that our approach failed to take cognisance of the safety of children is INACCURATE AND UNJUST [my capitals]. The ACCEPTANCE by media and current diocese policy that a cover-up took place must be challenged." And O'Mahony tells Dr Martin, "You were out of the Diocese for 31 years and had no idea how traumatic it was for those of us who had to deal with allegations ... " This self-pitying prelate still does not accept that he failed as a pastor, as a citizen, and as a human being. He still seems to think he has been denied process, and refuses to accept the solemn judicial findings of the Murphy report which stated after full investigation that the Church deliberately covered up its own failures in dealing with the horror of child sex abuse by its priests. But then, the Murphy report was delivered by a lay, State-empowered judge: worse, a woman. What status can that have against the awesome power of Canon Law? O'Mahony wants the media as well as Archbishop Martin to share his skewed thinking. And he is not the only one: Diarmuid Martin is becoming a pariah among his brother bishops. If we are to move on, we must start by taking control of primary education back into the hands of the State, and away from these people with their blunted moral sense and breathtaking definition of their power platforms as a "light for every generation".
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