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	Papal Epistle Starts Healing Process By Colum Kenny Irish Independent March 21, 2010 http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/papal-epistle-starts-healing-process-2106162.html IRELAND -- But the Pope's letter leaves no wriggle room for under-fire bishops, writes Colum Kenny at St Patrick's in Armagh It was a sunny morning in Armagh yesterday, and St Patrick's Cathedral was warm and bright. But, as he celebrated Mass, Cardinal Sean Brady looked tired and dignified rather than happy or pleased. He was about to read us the Pastoral Letter of the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI to the Catholics of Ireland. It was hard not to imagine from the words of a beautiful hymn being sung that it had not been picked just to sustain him: Jesus Lord I ask for mercy/ Let me not implore in vain. The church hierarchy in Ireland is working hard to cope with fall-out from the sex abuse scandal, a point underlined by the fact that I had earlier received a text message from its director of communications at 3.50am yesterday. The press office was not spinning the Pope's words. But it wanted them heard. And they are worth hearing, and reading. Pope Benedict's pastoral letter is clearer than any statement that has come from the Irish hierarchy itself on sex abuse in the church. The strongest point in the Pope's letter to Ireland is his unambiguous apology to victims of sexual abuse. By openly expressing his "shame and remorse", he has accepted on behalf of church authorities the blame for past crimes and injustices. The most attractive aspect of his pastoral letter is his appeal to young people not to lose heart and his optimism that they can bring their "much-needed enthusiasm and idealism to the rebuilding and renewal" of the church. Some critics will pick holes in the letter, but its integrity will be proved or disproved by whatever happens next. If Irish bishops continue to have the full truth dragged out of them only when facts happen to escape from concealment then they will make liars of Pope Benedict. The least attractive aspect of the letter is what looks like a sideswipe at the reform movement that was associated with the Second Vatican Council opened by good Pope John XXIII. Pope Benedict has left no more wriggle room for Irish bishops or cardinals. He has demanded transparency. He says to religious that: "God's justice summons us to give an account of our actions and to conceal nothing." He is unambiguous when he tells those whom he calls "my brother bishops" that: "Only decisive action carried out with complete honesty and transparency will restore the respect and good will of the Irish people." It would be an act of staggering bad will if it transpires in the future that anyone at the Vatican thinks that such a papal pronouncement could ever be squared with the kind of "mental reservation" that Cardinal Desmond Connell appeared to defend before Judge Yvonne Murphy. His words to victims of abuse could scarcely be clearer. He points out that he has already, on several occasions since becoming Pope, met with victims of sexual abuse, "as indeed, I am ready to do in the future". The sooner he meets Irish victims the better then, and not just carefully hand-picked ones For now, what he says to victims leaves no room for doubt that they were wronged repeatedly. He writes: "You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured. Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated. Many of you found that, when you were courageous enough to speak of what happened to you, no one would listen. "Those of you who were abused in residential institutions must have felt that there was no escape from your sufferings. It is understandable that you find it hard to forgive or be reconciled with the church. "In her name, I openly express the shame and remorse that we all feel. At the same time, I ask you not to lose hope." In a significant passage he writes: "The programme of renewal proposed by the Second Vatican Council was sometimes misinterpreted and indeed, in the light of the profound social changes that were taking place, it was far from easy to know how best to implement it. "There was a well-intentioned but misguided tendency to avoid penal approaches to canonically irregular situations. It is in this overall context that we must try to understand the disturbing problem of child sexual abuse." But Pope Benedict shies away from also addressing institutional problems relating to the exercise of power. Strong on the undoubted need for people to take charge of their own behaviour, he is much weaker on the relationship between the abuse of power and sexual abuse -- and also weak on the role that the laity should play. However, he does single out one very important factor in the Irish context, namely "a tendency in society to favour the clergy and other authority figures". In this pastoral letter the laity seem to be like extras in a film, called on to perform their religious duties and so to help renew the church but not given much prospect of influencing the future organisation and teachings of the church. The pastoral was mercifully free of self-pitying sideswipes at the media or at unspecified dark forces that sometimes feature in the responses of bishops to criticism. See Analysis, pages 14 & 15
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